Life, Lately, No. 1 | On Ticks, Timing, and Questionable Luck
How a couple of unlikely encounters made me wonder whether bad luck has a sense of humor.
A Note to Readers
Going forward not every story here will end up as a full-length essay. Some will look more like a funny coincidence, an unexpected frustration, an observation I can’t quite shake, or one of those moments that leaves me thinking, Well...that was odd.
Life, Lately is my new personal column where I’ll share those smaller stories; the ones that made me laugh, rethink something I thought I knew, or simply pause long enough to pay attention. Consider it the conversational side of Life Matters: less polished, a little more spontaneous, and proof that everyday life usually offers better material than I could make up.
THIS WEEK
Twenty years ago, finding a tick on your scalp was something that happened only to hikers who spent long periods in the great outdoors. Today, it can happen after watering the flowers or bringing in the groceries.
Yesterday, I found a tick... on my scalp...AGAIN.
I was less than enthusiastic.
For those keeping score at home, this is the second time it’s happened in twelve months.
But, here’s the thing: I wasn’t hiking or wading through tall grass. I wasn’t forest bathing or camping. I was living my normal, mostly suburban life.
When something like this happens once, you call it bad luck, pull it out with tweezers (or in my case, my fingers), and hope no symptoms show up. Both times, I assumed it was a small flake of dry skin and peeled it off. Both times, I called my doctor and promptly got a prescription for doxycycline (due to my being immunocompromised).
However, when it happens twice inside of a year, your brain takes a weird, hyper-defensive turn. After the “event”, I genuinely found myself wondering:
Am I being deliberately targeted?
Did I offend a secret society of arachnids?
Is this a glitch in the simulation?
But things are changing as they’re apt to do. Climate change is worsening the tick problem. Milder, insulated winters allow them to survive in leaf litter, while heavy spring rains create the ideal moist, humid environment for them to thrive.
In addition, ticks are worse when deer populations become overcrowded in limited or fragmented habitats. I remember when our local park had NO deer. The wildlife consisted mainly of rabbits, squirrels, chipmunks, and hawks. But that’s no longer the case. Bambi and his extended family are overpopulating the 380 acres of green space, all surrounded by suburban neighborhoods. There were even reports of a bear living there now!
I’m an animal lover, and I hate that humans have encroached on their habitats to the point where they have little left. It’s not their fault. They’re trying to survive like the rest of us.
I considered starting a GoFundMe to buy a bunch of opossums to release into the park. They reportedly can eat thousands of ticks per day!
The only problem? This is apparently an urban legend. My research revealed that it's not true.
Data from researchers at IGeneX shows that gardening, yard work, and standard neighborhood walking actually account for the vast majority of tick encounters. Yikes! They don’t need a massive forest; they need a shady patch of suburban grass and a passing squirrel or chipmunk.
But logically knowing that doesn’t stop the brain from searching for a narrative. As humans, we’re obsessed with meaning. We would almost rather believe a wild conspiracy theory than accept the terrifying reality that we’re just experiencing completely random, chaotic luck. (Hard to believe, I know.)
Random, chaotic luck? Nah…I need something concrete. My go-to justification used to be “God hates me.” I figured anything bad that came my way was a direct result of my wild-child years, and the Big Man was finally making me pay. These days, I just figure shit happens. Or it’s… random, chaotic luck!
We, humans, really do hate the idea of a blank slate. Of no neat and tidy system. No control. Of life left to chance. If Mother Nature has a “hit” out on my scalp, at least I’m the main character in a thriller. If it’s statistical noise, then I’m just a person who happened to walk past the wrong blade of grass at the wrong second.
The next time you feel as though the universe is singling you out for a streak of bad luck, ask yourself:
Is there a grand plot, or is your brain just trying to turn a random coincidence into a story?
Personally, I’m keeping one eye on the squirrel.
I’M THINKING ABOUT…
How growing older teaches us that the world doesn’t change all at once. It changes one tick, one hot summer, one disappearing firefly, and one new habit at a time, until one day we realize we’re living in a different world than the one we grew up in. 🥺
ONE GOOD THING
Despite the tick episode, a few perennials (out of the many that I planted) have begun to bloom in the garden, and the resident bunnies are ecstatic! I could focus on how many I actually planted in my first attempt at gardening (and how few survived), but this section is called “One good thing” for a reason. 😉
YOUR THOUGHTS
What’s one small change you’ve noticed in everyday life that would have seemed unbelievable twenty or thirty years ago? 💭 We all could use an occasional trip down memory lane! Please share in the comments.
LIFE MATTERS is a reader-sponsored publication. If you enjoyed and/or found value in this post, please like, subscribe, share, and consider supporting my efforts with a paid subscription or tip:
Thanks for reading!
HATE ticks. We have them here - and they adhere to any living thing. Our poor pup picked up one in the sags at the beach and it was identified as the paralysis tick, so we had to rave to the emergency animal hospital so that he could be treated and monitored for 24 hours.
Now we buy an incredibly expensive product to drop between his shoulder-blades and it prevents ticks and fleas for 6 months.
Maybe we need to drop it between our shoulderblades as well.
Ticks are a real nuisance. I'm glad you were able to get an antibiotic prescription right away. Good for you. I've heard so many stories of bad outcomes from untreated tick bites.
I like your phrase, "random, chaotic luck." From now on, may yours be the good variety! 🙂