Last night I had the pleasure of watching a good portion of a very strange film with my father as he struggles to recover from prostate cancer surgery. Unfortunately, he is among the 1 in 50 who have complications with their intestines "waking up" after surgery. It's been difficult to sleep and he's eaten almost nothing.
One of the reasons I rushed home to Missouri from Bloomington was to encourage my dad to not lose hope of recovery--that he still has work to do in serving the church by writing books (for children) related to the Bible and science and a Christian view of ecology. Dad is a (mostly) retired biology professor with a special interest in lakes and streams and cave ecology.
As you can probably guess, the film is a nature documentary of sorts. It's called Microcosmos. It's weird…and you will love it if you are a child at heart. It wasn't long before the nurse was crowding in next to two of my nephews to see what in the world we were watching...
If you want to get right to the epic battle between the two stag beetles, skip to 58:40.
The film has no words so it works especially well with my dad's bemused commentary. I hope you can experience that some day.
*As a kid, I was brought into my father's world of biology and ecology; crawling through caves and collecting bugs. I never new that other families' freezers weren't filled with roadkill carefully tucked away in plastic bags.
But ask now the beasts, and they shall teach thee; and the fowls of the air, and they shall tell thee: Or speak to the earth, and it shall teach thee: and the fishes of the sea shall declare unto thee. Who knoweth not in all these that the hand of the Lord hath wrought this? (Job 12:7-9)
UPDATE: We've had some good news today with the intestines working a bit. Please keep Stephen Jones in your prayers.
