Can there be love without sacrifice?
Only if it involves oneself.
R De Braganza, Kilifi, Kenya
• When it’s true love, it doesn’t feel like a sacrifice.
Avril Taylor, Dundas, Ontario, Canada
• No. Love, between two people, in order to survive, always requires some sacrifice of autonomy.
David Turner, Bellevue Heights, South Australia
• Yes, love conquers all.
David Tucker, Halle, Germany
• Not if you’re an amorous Druid.
Jim Dewar, Gosford, NSW, Australia
• Not according to the Aztecs.
David Isaacs, Sydney, Australia
• The sacrifices will engender love, and more sacrifices. Vested interest: in for a penny, in for a pound.
RM Fransson, Wheat Ridge, Colorado, US
Cameras and a star presenter
Just what does it take to make a bug cute?
Big round impish eyes.
Richard Orlando, Westmount, Quebec, Canada
• Lots and lots of cameras and David Attenborough.
Lorna Kaino, Fremantle, Western Australia
• Acute beetle-mania.
Geoff Pearson, Perth, Western Australia
• Cute bug? The word oxymoron comes to mind. Appreciation is possible, especially for that cool dude of a hornet that’s cruising my garden and dining on aphids. However, cute it is not. It isn’t a bug either, but let’s not get pedantic.
Margaret Wyeth, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
• The jitters.
Jane Perry, Wellington, New Zealand
• Distance.
Bob Elgie, Ajax, Ontario, Canada
• Small size, rounded shape and red wing covers with black spots: the ladybird beetle.
Ursula Nixon, Bodalla, NSW, Australia
• More than any of the qualities they possess to date.
John Benseman, Auckland, New Zealand
• I once found a very cute bug in the garden. It was brilliantly coloured with spectacular markings and moved in a sensually and slinky kind of manner. It looked so cute and attractive I put it in a box with some lettuce leaves. My children loved it; apparently so did the dog. When we were distracted by a telephone call he promptly ate it.
Brian Kenworthy, Norwood, South Australia
• A psychedelic paint job on the bonnet and boot.
Charlie Bamforth, Davis, California, US
• In Australia, not being venomous is a good start.
Lawrie Bradly, Surrey Hills, Victoria, Australia
• Ethyl acetate in a killing jar and a pin through the thorax.
Donna Samoyloff, Toronto, Canada
• Four wheels.
Philip Stigger, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada
More attentive to beauty
When did you first accept that you were in fact mortal?
When at the age of seven I attended a planetarium show depicting the fiery death of the Earth caused by an expanding, dying sun: it was so sad to learn we all had only a few billion years to go.
John Geffroy, Las Vegas, New Mexico, US
• I am about to celebrate my 77th birthday. I think it was about two years ago when I was admiring the full moon gleaming in a clear sapphire-blue summer evening sky – and caught myself pondering how many more times I have left to repeat the experience! Since then I haven’t felt particularly more conscious of my mortality – but I’ve been much more attentive to the beauty of this world.
Dave Schmalz, Amsterdam, the Nertherlands
Any answers?
How do you deal with your burdens?
R De Braganza, Kilifi, Kenya
What is the difference between questionable and problematic?
Rhys Winterburn, Perth, Western Australia
Send answers to weekly.nandq@theguardian.com
