House centipede & Ermine

I used to live in Michigan, many many years ago, and these centipedes struck me as a replacement pest for the cockroach. It is just the right amount of creepy to stand in a symbol for some very bad memories and then halfway through working on this, a friend of mine in Chicago proclaimed an enthusiastic love for the many-legged bugs, and explained that they replace the spider more than the roach, as they eat other pests like silverfish and earwigs.

At first it made me almost angry, as this new perspective had muddied up my meanings.  To finish the piece I had to think about and accept the idea that  what’s bad could always be worse.  Furthermore that sometimes bad choices are still better choices, and that evil things can inadvertently do good.  It doesn’t make them less evil.  I don’t care how many earwigs and silverfish this guy eats, he’s still really creepy.