Of fireflies and memories

New York is definitely a magical place. Not perfect by a long shot, but it definitely has some magic going on. 

Let me explain...

After an early dinner yesterday night, I started feeling a bit restless and experienced a sudden craving for the best ice cream on the planet. Yes, my friends, Grom's cioccolato extranoir. Oh my! It was a lovely midsummer evening and the sun was just setting, which cast a marvellous golden light across Midtown. I decided to walk home through the Park, which sort of opened the floodgates and brought up many childhood memories. 

Video by Mary E. Allen

You see, when I was a little munchkin, I used to spend a lot of time at my nona and nono's place in the countryside. I had a blast milking Minka the cow, kneading bread, bringing colorful bunches of field blooms to my imaginary (boy)friend Rudi and, on summer evenings, grasping hay using tiny rakes that nono made just for me. Surprisingly, that was my favourite chore (kneading bread was a close second), and what made summer dusk in the meadows really special were the hundreds of blinking fireflies hovering just above the mowed grass, seemingly keeping an eye on us.

If you ever attempted to catch a firefly, you probably noticed that, despite the very cool glowing ass, they are not the cutest members of the animal kingdom (that would be baby goats) and they actually look very much like ordinary bugs.

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But from a distance, they are truly awesome, and it's not really hard to imagine that they are not bug-looking bugs, but tiny fairies holding their lanterns and rushing home for dinner. 

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My imagination used to run wild more than usual (see above) during those summers with the grandparents and I was truly having the time of my life. Then, things started to change one by one. First, nono left us way too soon, then pre-puberty rolled in and with it a decreasing interest in helping on the farm, followed by my beloved Rudi moving away without a word or even a note (if anyone has ever wondered where my trust issues around men come from, there you have it ;)). 

Of course, the simple fact that firefly populations have been steadily decreasing across Europe didn't help with maintaining the magic. "Biochemistry one" during my freshman year at university wasn't helpful, either, since I found out that the blinking light was not some sort of hocus-pocus ℅ Mother Nature, but a rather straightforward biochemical reaction involving luciferin, the enzyme luciferase, some ions and a lot of energy in the form of ATP. I guess performing firefly-light-enzyme-based assays to measure programmed cell death in cancer cells did not help, either. Way to kill it, science nerds! 

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Thanks to my bountiful scientific education, whenever I see fireflies nowadays, I can't help but think about how much energy some beings on this Earth are willing to waste just to get laid (male fireflies light up their butts to attract females). 

SOTD: Owl City - Fireflies. Because, d'uhhh.

Luckily, part of me is still capable of seeing the magic in the blinking lights of hundreds of fireflies. Thankfully, New York parks are choke-full of those cool little glowing bugs in the summer. 

New York is a magical place. I told you so.

Jules