Thought for the Week

One of my favourite quotes comes from an African proverb and says this: ‘If you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping with a mosquito.’ Perhaps in Scotland we should change it to ‘midge’.

This is the time of year when people are seen flailing their arms in the air and seem to be beating off some invisible attacker.

Well the attacker may seem invisible, but it surely makes its presence known. The dreaded midge is the blight of summertime on the west coast of Scotland and can spoil many a potentially pleasant evening outdoors.

Known as Scotland’s secret weapon, they do not inflict disease or illness, but can certainly cause a lot of misery and frustration.

There have been many attempts to thwart midges, from creams and sprays to ‘midgie gobblers’ and much more, but to really no avail.

It is difficult to overstate the irredeemable nastiness that is the Highland midge. Swarms of them plague the Scottish wilds throughout the summer, as inevitable as the tides, as merciless as time, as insidious as poison. They’ll make your blood boil if you let them (and then they’ll drink it).

A swarm of them can inflict about 3,000 bites in an hour. In that same time-span, 40,000 midges can land on an unprotected arm.

However, if we go back to our quote, they may be small but they are mighty.

One midge may not cause too much damage, but when they team up, they are invincible.

So maybe for some of the causes we care about, the issues which need our attention, the challenges of today, we should become like the midges and torment those with the power to change things, until they do so.