As I am sipping my drink on the sunlit hotel terrace, where I am completely alone, I am watching the chestnut trees swaying in the breeze and all sorts of insects flying around the last one among the trees that is still in flower. The flowers on the other trees are gone by now. Most of the insects are wasps, but there are some bees among them, as well as an occasional bumblebee. The other species attracted by the flowers are beyond me. But their steady hum is quite a joy. What I also like about the sundry insects buzzing around me is that they go back hundreds of millions of years. One way or another, most of them will keep going no matter what my species does to the planet we share. And that offers me quite a bit of comfort in my dotage. The thought that humans are powerless against nature actually makes me outright happy. In the end, we are nigh irrelevant. Life will go on and on with or without us. Glory to the flowers and insects! Let them prosper long after we are gone for good. And good is the word.