Bees Don’t Know They're Pollinating (and neither do you)
My kids (9 & 11) called me outside the other day to check out this bee pollinating our hasta flowers. First of all, I love that they still see the magic in life and stop to check out these miraculous daily events. Second, it gave me a moment to pause and think about how much I love bees. I often sit at my desk and watch the bees pollinate the Rose of Sharon outside my window. I like to think about how cool these little insects are, and how much they're capable of. Did you know that bees can fly about 20 mph and beat their wings 200 times per second? Did you know that a queen can lay up to 2,000 eggs per day and that beehives can hold around 50,000 bees? Did you know that a bee's sense of smell is 50 times more powerful than a dog's (and scientists estimate a dog's sense of smell is between 10,000 to 100,000 times stronger than humans)? Or that a worker bee can carry a load of nectar or pollen equal to 80% of her own body weight?*
But my favorite fact about bees is that they travel up to 3 miles from the hive in search of nectar and pollen and will visit between 50 and 100 flowers during their trip. And from this activity, bees collectively pollinate approximately 130 agricultural crops in the US alone, including fruit, fiber, nut, and vegetable crops. Bee pollination adds approximately 14 billion dollars annually to improved crop yield and quality.
And here's the kicker - BEES HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THEY'RE RESPONSIBLE FOR! They're not out in the world knowing they're responsible for pollinating our fruits and vegetables and maintaining life and agriculture on this planet. No, they're out collecting pollen for the queen, doing their job as any good worker bee would do. It's just that, in the process, the bi-product of their work, which they are completely oblivious to, is the survival of life on our planet. They have an impact they'll never understand.
And this made me think - aren't we all doing the same thing? Going about our day, getting our work done, living our lives, doing our thing, and making stops along the way. But what if there was a bee-like bi-product that we were unaware of? What if we're pollinators too?! And the stops along the way, the visits we have with people, the connections we're making as part of the process of getting our work done and living our lives, the way we leave people feeling when we show up or when we take off… that's pollinating!
There's something about this analogy that I really like. What if our small interactions do cross-pollinate and produce metaphorical seeds and fruit? Couldn't a brief negative interaction cause someone to have a bad day, come home and take it out on their family? You'd have no way of knowing. Couldn't a simple positive interaction when someone is having a bad day restore their faith in humanity? Again, a bi-product you'd never know about. While it might not feel like much, if we're "pollinating positively", in other words, leaving positive remnants from our interactions rather than negative ones, what if that's the massive unknown humanitarian win we're having while we think we're just out making cheddar (you know, instead of honey)?
(*facts sourced from a quick internet search for Ooh/Ahh factor. I'm sure they can be disputed if you really want to fight about it).
