Cockroach (Animal)

In a Caribbean story from this book, the spider Anansi challenges Cockroach to a climbing contest. Anansi, using his webs, then rapidly ascends to the top of a tree, only to find Cockroach waiting for him. The great trickster had forgotten that cockroaches have wings! Cockroaches creatures are constantly underestimated by human beings as well, and few people have even noticed the way images of cockroaches pervade our culture, in everything from comic books and movies to scientific laboratories. They fascinate us, without our even realizing it. For author Marion W. Copeland, the cockroach is a special challenge to our capacity for empathy with other creatures. It is not that cockroaches actually need our sympathy, since, as the author points out at the beginning of her book, they have already survived for 300 million years. The concern is more that we need to be able to acknowledge our kinship with cockroaches, as well as the more glamorous animals like chimpanzees and tigers, to fully participate in the great community of life.