Hard work is great, diligence is admirable, but baby- there is more to life.After a long, cold winter of miserly chewing on carefully stored goods a little ant emerged into the soft sun of a Spring morning and decided that he was flat out sick and tired of working and hoarding, working and hoarding. It was a beautiful morning and all of his ant friends were busying themselves with repairs to the anthill and the collecting of food for the next winter. "When does it ever end? What is the point of it all?" the little ant asked of himself.
And so he wandered off.
He passed a group of his ant friends dismembering a Rhinoceros Beetle and toting it in pieces back to the larder. He passed another group of ants collecting grains of sand to build a retaining wall, "Hey! Come give us some hands!" they yelled. Little Ant scurried off as though he didn't hear them.
Little Ant decided to go see if Grasshopper made it through the winter.
Little Ant found Grasshopper sitting in the sun, picking at his electric guitar.
"Hi Grasshopper, how was your winter?"
"Aw man" Grasshopper said, "My winter was groovy".
"Didn't you starve?" Asked Little Ant. "Didn't you freeze?"
"Well, I can't lie to you Little Ant, I got pretty hungry. I got pretty cold." Grasshopper said, as he picked some heavy Sabbath-style licks. "That was pretty harsh when you all turned me away empty-handed." He didn't look up at Little Ant. This made Little Ant feel bad. He had never felt bad before, not even when dismembering Rhinocerous Beetles.
"So what did you do all winter Grasshopper?"
"I got by", Grasshopper said. "I found some cool Dragonflies to kick it with. They gave me something to eat from time to time and I played my guitar and told stories and drank red wine."
"Wow" said Little Ant, "That sounds cool".
"Yeah man, it was cool." Said Grasshopper.
"So what about you Little Ant?" "How was your winter?"
"It sucked." Said Little Ant. "All we did was hoard food and talk about the repairs we needed to do to the pile". "I'm sick of eating Rhinocerous Beetle, that's for sure".
"Whoa!" Said Grasshopper, "As long as you don't get a taste for grasshoppers!"
Little Ant chuckled sheepishly.
Some clouds floated by and then the sunshine poured down onto Grasshopper and Little Ant. Grasshopper's eyes were closed and his head was turned into the sun. He was thumping out a Pixie's song absent-mindedly and smiling.
"You rock Grasshopper!" Said Little Ant.
"You're all right too Little Ant, you're all right too."
~The End~
Juancho
4 comments:
OK, it's an allegory. It's all right to be the grasshopper sometimes because our heavenly zookeeper will provide for each of us. Or is this from the magical socialist realism school?
I was the ant on the last 10 miles out of Monticello in the Spaghetti 100 (K for me, not miles) Saturday. The hills were hurting me bad. Then I finished and became the grasshopper feasting on spaghetti along with the praying mantises and dragonflies. Still feel like the grasshopper today. If I could play guitar, I'd be belting out some Grandaddy.
That story sounds really partisian to me. Either this or that... come on.. ants do more than eat beetle and make lists (don't they eat only fungus, or is that just some ants?). I've heard there are some whacked parties going on down there. And how did grasshopper pay for that guitar? Ant should encourage him to write his own damn song. Sounds like they both need some moderation.
Lets hear about about all the riding
this past weekend.
I thought that when you read the kids a story they were supposed to go to sleep?
Yo,
Forgot Stevie's email; please send me a smoke signal.
Moss Man
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