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When I was three years old, I liked bugs. I mean, I really liked 'em. Not the Oh! look there's a cool bug! type of like either. I liked to eat the little suckers. I ate em whole. And I never got sick. My diet at that age consisted of cereal, milk, and bugs. However, when I reached the tender age of four, that all changed with a single traumatic event.....
I knew I had the sucker. Fire ants. My favorite. I had seen an ant on the ground and ran to get a fork (yes, i actually insisted on killing them with forks before consumption, my parents taught me all too well). So I got the fork and got back just in time to see the ant disappear into a light socket.
Remember. I was four at the time. I didn't even know electricity existed, let alone how a conduit works and what sockets were for. However, I understood the concept of a lever well enough and unfortunately enough. So I went up to the socket and stuck the fork right in in an attempt to pry the bugger from the socket.
Needless to say, I received the shock (no pun intended) of my life. Before I knew what was happening, pain shot up through arm and into my shoulder. I quickly dropped the fork and jerked my hand away in surprise. As four year olds tend to do when hurt, I began to bawl until mommy came.
And mommy did come. And comfort me. And kiss my boo-boos and made it all better as mommy's magic powers always do. But, with my toddler logic, I assumed that the bug had somehow done that to me. I figured since it was a fire ant, it stung me. So I never again ate another bug intentionally for the rest of my life. I was just too scared. But the experience was not in vain. I learned an important lesson that I feel necessary to pass on to you all today, to further the wisdom of the nodegel:
Never take a bug out of a socket with a fork!
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