​The Last Flight of a
Disappointed Mosquito

Divine Love in Small Things
​

​“And when she purses her lips and makes a noise, audible only to me, that sounds like the last flight of a disappointed mosquito​, I know I’ve said something stupid.”
​
- Tony Early, novelist, speaking of his friendly and mutual relationship with the novelist Alice McDermott when they lead writing workshops.

 

All Creatures Great and Small

One of the most revolutionary aspects of open and relational (process) theology is its recognition that divine activity is omnipresent, even in what we humans might consider small and insignificant: the final flight of a disappointed mosquito. Thus, it serves as a critique of human-centered presumptuousness and an invitation to develop micro-theologies that appreciate the small and amazing. It also raises profound, Job-like questions about the place of humans in the broader scheme, pointing to the possibility of an eco-democracy of value in the ongoing life of God, even as we make necessary and practical distinctions concerning degrees of value in life on earth. We may swat the mosquito, but in doing so, we best recognize that we are swatting part of God's life. Wherever there is an eros to live, God is present. Nothing is too small to matter.

Divine Love in Small Things
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Open and relational approaches stress that divine power can be understood as uncontrolling love active among the smallest and largest, the least complex and the most, in the miraculous and mundane.

- Thomas Oord, Tripp Fuller: God after Deconstruction

Micro-Theology

Open and relational theology recognizes the loving activity of God in all creatures, including the small ones: insects, arachnids, microorganisms, plankton, and nematodes, for example. It is a critique of the prejudice against small things: a critique of "big" thinking that cannot find God in the small, the mundane, and the allegedly insignificant.

Attention to small creatures is a kind of expansion of the mind: but it it downward expansion not upward expansion. Or, perhaps better, micro-expansion. It has the courage to say "Blessed are the Small" and encourage the emergence of micro-theologies.

The Frustrated Mosquito

Consider the mosquito of whom Tony Early speaks above. Let 'the disappointed mosquito on her last flight' be understood literally and also metaphorically as symbolizing all small creatures. Of course, "small" is relative. What is "small" to us may be quite large from the perspective of pollen, spores, and microorganisms, which are "large" compared to the molecules that compose them. Let the disappointed mosquito represent all that is small to human beings, but quickly add that the mosquito is not small to herself and that we humans are small when compared to large mammals, geological formations, planets, stars, and birds which see us from a distance. Small is beautiful and small is relative.

Assume the mosquito is disappointed because she could not find a host on her last flight of the day, or for that matter, her lifetime. Mosquitoes ordinarily live for about two weeks. Her disappointment might be insignificant to humans, but not to God, say Thomas Oord and Tripp Fuller in their book The Deconstruction of God. They speak of each creature as being inwardly lured by God's love. In their words:

We think a universal Spirit of love always engages us, because this Lover is present to every creature in every moment.

Mosquito Subjectivity

I don't know that any of us truly understand what it means for the mosquito to be lured by divine Love. However, we do know some of the kinds of sensory experiences she has: chemical sensing, visual perception, heat perception, touch, moisture sensing, auditory sensing, sensing wind currents, and, as research suggests, electromagnetic sensing. In the language of process theology, she 'prehends' or 'feels' her environment in these ways, consciously or unconsciously. We can easily imagine that amid these many forms of prehending, she feels something else: something akin to a goal to survive. She is inwardly lured by an aim to survive with satisfaction, relative to the situation at hand. This is her 'subjective aim,' to use the language of Alfred North Whitehead.

​We even know the content of her aim. She seeks blood from hosts to harvest proteins and iron found in blood, essential for the development of her eggs. Her sense of this aim may also be unconscious or 'instinctive.' She does not reflect on her aim; she simply feels it. She also feels a disappointment: a sense that, because she has not found a host, there is something missing, something absent, something that could have been but was not. In the language of Whitehead, she feels a 'contrast' between her subjective aim and what is actually the case: a frustrated desire.

The 'she' who has these feelings is not different from the feelings themselves. We need not imagine a self-contained 'I' standing above or outside her experience, remaining the same over time. Instead, we can recognize that her prehensions of her environment, the desired goal, and the disappointment are who and what she is in the moment at hand. Moreover, they unfold moment-by-moment. The disappointed mosquito is not a self-same substance enduring unchanged over time; she is a series of momentary experiences, extending from birth to death. In all of these respects, she is, by the way, like us. We, too, are such a series, except, for some of us, with a longer lifespan.

Love's Invitation to the Mosquito

It is in this context, so Oord and Fuller suggest, that God's activity is present. They also speak of it as 'Love's invitation.' Our frustrated mosquito experiences this activity as a primordial aim within her, which overlaps with her own subjective aim. It is an aim to live and to flourish, to enjoy whatever fullness of life or 'richness of experience' is available to her, given the circumstances of her life. Its content can change moment by moment, but always it is for flourishing, for richness of experience. God, too, seeks the well-being of the frustrated mosquito. The mosquito and God co-desire her well-being.

Process theologians add that each mosquito possesses intrinsic value for itself as well as instrumental value for others. She is not simply an 'object' for God; she is a 'subject' for God or, better, a series of subjective experiences, each of whish is a subject. They believe that whatever enjoyment or disappointment a mosquito experiences is felt by God as it occurs, such that God 'feels the feelings' of each experience, including every beat of the wings. Each experience, as felt, then becomes part of God's ongoing life in what they call 'the consequent nature of God.' In this way, the very life of God includes the feelings of mosquitoes and all sentient beings. God is not simply a human-like God, God is also a mosquito-like God. And we can playfully surmise that, should mosquitoes ever imagine God through images, God would be, for them, a giant, invisible (and perhaps benevolent) Mosquito in whose mage they are made.

From this analysis, two important questions emerge:

1. Are humans more valuable than mosquitoes? Process philosophers and theologians speak of value as the 'richness of experience' a creature can enjoy, measured in terms of harmony and intensity. Andrew Davis speaks of this richness as 'aesthetic value.' Are the capacities of mosquitoes to experience their worlds less aesthetically valuable than human experiences?
2. Whose side is God on? If some mosquitoes carry diseases that threaten humans and other beings, and God seeks their well-being as well as that of the hosts they threaten, is there an inescapable conflict in God's own life? As the disease-bearing mosquito approaches her host, whose side is God on?

A Democracy of Value in God

The primary value of asking these questions is not that they have easy or simple answers. It is that the very asking of them challenges an unthinkingly human-centric point of view. The questions are very much like those asked in the biblical book of Job, except that in this circumstance, we are speaking of small creatures.

Practically speaking, humans often act as if human beings are more valuable than mosquitoes, such that if a choice must be made between the life of a human or a mosquito, the choice should favor the human. Within this practice lies an implicit metaphysic: a hierarchy of value with humans placed 'higher' than mosquitoes. Thus, the implicit answer to the first question above is: Yes, humans are more valuable, because they enjoy richer forms of experience than mosquitoes: tenderness, imagination, hope, and poignant I-Thou relations. In the language of Andrew Davis, the "aesthetic value" of human life is greater than that of mosquito life.

However, we can also imagine forms of life, perhaps generated by artificial intelligence, that might feed upon human beings and possess what seem like still 'higher' forms of experience. These forms might consider themselves justified in their predatory habits by virtue of their higher status.

Much within us would balk at this assumption, claiming that we possess at least equal value. We would resist the very hierarchical thinking we apply to mosquitoes when applied to ourselves. Therefore, there may be wisdom in the idea that, in God's eyes, all actualities have equal value, forming a democracy of value, not a hierarchy. It may be that, for practical purposes, we think in terms of a hierarchy but add that, in the heart of the divine life, all creatures are equal.

Blessed are the Small

Thus, the frustrated mosquito challenges the idea that, from God's perspective, life is about 'us.' For this reason alone, it can be good for us to keep in mind other living beings whom we consider small and insignificant in order to widen and de-sentimentalize our understanding of God and ourselves.

It can be good, along with Thomas Oord and Tripp Fuller, to trust that Love's invitation is in all creatures, not humans alone, and to rank things in terms of a hierarchy of value only for practical purposes, all the while remembering that, deep down, life is precious to those who can enjoy it, however small or large, and to the Love in which all are enfolded.

​- Jay McDaniel

Addendum:

Varieties of Small Creatures
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​Small creatures on Earth come in a wide variety of forms, spanning multiple categories across different ecosystems. Categories include:

1. Insects: This is the largest group of small creatures and includes species like mosquitoes, flies, beetles, butterflies, and bees. Insects play diverse roles in ecosystems, such as pollinators, predators, and prey.​
2. Arachnids: These include spiders, ticks, mites, and scorpions. Arachnids are generally small, though some like the Goliath birdeater spider can grow larger. They are crucial for controlling insect populations and recycling nutrients.
3. Microorganisms:
   • Bacteria: Ubiquitous in every habitat on Earth, bacteria are essential for processes like decomposition and nutrient cycling.
   • Viruses: Though often not considered "living" in the traditional sense, viruses affect all life forms and can significantly impact ecosystems and health.
   • Fungi: Including yeasts and molds, fungi play key roles in decomposition and as symbionts in plant roots.
   • Protozoa: Single-celled organisms that often live in water or as parasites. They are crucial in nutrient cycles and as part of the food web.
4. Plankton:
   • Phytoplankton: Tiny plant-like organisms that live in watery environments and perform photosynthesis.
   • Zooplankton: Small animal-like organisms that feed on phytoplankton and are a vital part of aquatic food chains.
5. Nematodes: Also known as roundworms, these are incredibly abundant microscopic worms found in virtually every environmental niche, from soil to water to inside other organisms.
6. Mollusks: While some mollusks like squids and octopuses can be large, many are small, such as snails and slugs. Small mollusks are important for their roles in the food web and as bioindicators of environmental health.
7. Crustaceans: Small crustaceans include copepods, water fleas, and some types of shrimp, which are critical for aquatic food webs.
8. Amphibians: Some smaller amphibians, like certain frogs and salamanders, play critical roles in food webs and as indicators of environmental health.
9. Small Fishes: Numerous species of small fish are crucial for maintaining the balance of aquatic ecosystems, serving as prey for larger species and helping to control algae and plankton populations.

Each of these categories includes countless species, each with its unique role in its ecosystem, contributing to the biodiversity and functionality of our planet.