HELP ME - CENTRAL

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 I have often heard people use the phrase “dropping like flies,” but until recently I had never really considered what that meant. Last week I noticed that our house was being overtaken by flies. I’m not talking about the usual one or two flies that find their way inside when someone opens a door. We had SWARMS of flies and they were everywhere. They were caught in spiderwebs that I like to overlook in the corners of rooms and were crawling over window panes trying to find a way out. When I prepared meals, they crawled on the countertop and our usual evening routine of watching television was disrupted by our dogs making clumsy attempts to catch the flies that buzzed overhead.

     I have always been a catch and release type of person and the thought of killing anything, including flies, is something I didn’t want to contemplate, but eventually I realized that drastic measures had to be taken. I was convinced that something had died in one of the walls of our poorly insulated older home and that maggots were dining on the carcass, resulting in the fly infestation. My husband consulted with the experts at our favorite local hardware store and returned home with a can of something that supposedly would alleviate the problem without harming the dogs, cats, and humans in the household. 

     Our dogs were forced to spend some time in the backyard, while my husband sprayed every surface and crevice where a fly could possibly hide. After the fumes abated and I had washed every surface that could be contaminated by what I assumed to be poison, the dogs were allowed to return. It soon became apparent that the flies were dying. However, it wasn’t until the following day that they started to “drop like flies”. I began to feel like I was a character in a Grade B science fiction movie. I didn’t see any flies flying around, but every time I went into the kitchen I would find small flies lying on their backs with their tiny legs thrashing. I kept expecting one of the flies to speak and call out “Phillipe, Phillipe”... just like the main character/fly in the original “The Fly” movie when he became caught in a spider web. The fact that the dying flies were fairly small seemed to confirm my carcass/maggot theory.

     So what is the meaning and source of “Dropping like flies”? According to the Phrase Finder “The origin of this phrase isn't known. It is clearly a simple allusion to the transitory and fragile nature of an insect's life.” http/www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/124200.html

I wish no living thing to suffer pain. ~Percy Bysshe Shelley

      I'm sorry that the flies had to meet an untimely end. I believe that everything has a purpose, even a fly that has a lifespan of only 22 days. Why do I feel regret about killing an insect that seemingly serves no other function than to carry disease and serve as food for something higher up in the food chain...while there are those who can shoot a dog, drown a cat, or abandon animals with no more thought than swatting a fly? What is lacking in some of those we proclaim to be the highest form of life?

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