2008-Jan-20 - Waiting for a Resolution by Fernando Sorrentino
I am in the power of a mosquito. Were he so inclined wow gold , he would probably kill me. Luckily, until now, he has not abused his power. In the exercise of his sway over me he is moderate, not the least bit capricious, and, one might even say, constitutional. It must, however, be understood that my obedience derives not from a recognition of his qualities or virtues but from the fear he instills in me.
Were he to consider it expedient, he would kill me, and his crime - or execution - would go unpunished. In the event that the legal institutions could prove incontrovertibly that he was the murderer, they would not be able to punish him, not only because of the subsidiary fact that there is no provision in law for this type of offense but also because he would not allow it. To my great good fortune, I have common sense enough to see that he has once and for all dismissed the idea of doing away with me - so long as I give him no cause.
He has taken up residence on the wall, near the top of an oil painting that depicts an improbable landscape in which two seemingly Spanish shepherdesses with great big crooks are deep in conversation about some topic or other, surrounded by a flock of mildlooking sheep, one of whose straight back falls in with the line of the horizon in an unpleasing way. There is an abundance of topographical detail: a green plain, two purple mountains crowned with white, and a blue river that empties into a grayish lake. I know next to nothing about fine art, but this picture has always seemed to me to lack all aesthetic value. The mosquito, however, appears to have no interest in aesthetic values - or, for that matter, in any other sort of value. At least he has never shown either approval or disapproval.
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