posted August 26, 2008 08:40 AM            

The Ant and the Grasshopper

The ant and the grasshopper
This one is a little different...Two Different Versions! Two Different Morals!

OLD VERSION:

The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter.

The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away. Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed.

The grasshopper has no food or shelter, so he dies out in the cold.

MORAL OF THE STORY:
Be responsible for yourself!

MODERN VERSION:

The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter.

The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away.

Come winter, the shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while others are cold and starving.

CBS, NBC, PBS, CNN , and ABC show up to provide pictures of the shivering grasshopper next to a video of the ant in his comfortable home with a table filled with food. America is stunned by the sharp contrast.

How can this be, that in a country of such wealth, this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so?

Kermit the Frog appears on Oprah with the grasshopper, and everybody cries when they sing, 'It's Not Easy Being Green.'

Jesse Jackson stages a demonstration in front of the ant's house where the news stations film the group singing, 'We shall overcome.' Jesse then has the group kneel down to pray to God for the grasshopper's sake.

Nancy Pelosi & John Kerry exclaim in an interview with Larry King that the ant has gotten rich off the back of the grasshopper, and both call for an immediate tax hike on the ant to make him pay his fair share.

Finally, the EEOC drafts the Economic Equity & Anti-Grasshopper Act retroactive to the beginning of the summer.

The ant is fined for failing to hire a proportionate number of green bugs and, having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes, his home is confiscated by the government.

Hillary gets her old law firm to represent the grasshopper in a defamation suit against the ant, and the case is tried before a panel of federal judges that Bill Clinton appointed from a list of single-parent welfare recipients.

The ant loses the case.

The story ends as we see the grasshopper finishing up the last bits of the ant's food while the government house he is in, which just happens to be the ant's old house, crumbles around him because he doesn't maintain it.

The ant has disappeared in the snow.

The grasshopper is found dead in a drug related incident and the house, now abandoned, is taken over by a gang of spiders who terrorize the once peaceful neighborhood.

posted August 26, 2008 08:54 PM            

I first became acquainted with the story of the grasshopper and the
ants as a young girl--not by reading Aesop's fables, but by seeing a
Walt Disney cartoon. In the cartoon, the grasshopper fiddles and sings
while the ants gather food for the winter. The queen ant warns him
that he'd better prepare too, but the grasshopper continues fiddling.

When winter comes, the grasshopper, blue from the cold, knocks on the
tree where the ants live and begs them to let him in. The queen ant
gives her 'I-told-you-so' speech and ends with 'So take your fiddle
and...' there is a long pause-- So the grasshopper earns warmth and
food by playing.

Aesop is not as kind. When the grasshopper comes begging for food, the
queen ant tells him, 'You sang through the summer, now you can dance
through the winter.'

Even as a child, Aesop's version made me uncomfortable. It still makes
me uncomfortable. You see, I am a grasshopper.

I dance in elevators. The second the door closes, I begin tap dancing
and flinging my arms wildly about. I make faces and stick my tongue
out at the hidden cameras I believe exist in every elevator. When the
doors open, I stop short and stare with what I hope is a bored
elevator look into the open hallway ahead.

I am a grasshopper. It takes me a full day to dismantle my Christmas
tree because I dress up in the decorations. I wrap the gold tinsel
around my head in a turban. I make a shawl for my neck from glass
beads and paper chains. Red glass balls hang from my ears. Then,
standing in front of the hall mirror, I sing 'New York, New York.' I
feel like a star.

I am a grasshopper. I have never prepared for winter or the
Apocalypse. I do have two thousand pounds of wheat, which I hope never
to eat, and a box of chocolate chips that won't last through next
week. Last summer I tried to bottle some peaches--the cold-pack
method--just to see if I could do it. I bottled three jars. They sit
in my freezer like museum pieces.

I am a grasshopper. I live in a metaphorical world. I read and write
fiction. I draw pictures. I dance in elevators. I dress in Christmas
tree decorations.

But I was reared by ants. My mother and father immigrated to America
from the Netherlands in 1948 with four children. Five more children
were born in Salt Lake City. My father was an electrician. My mother
kept the house and us immaculate. She knitted us sweaters and baked
our bread. Dinner was ready each night at 5:30 on the nose. She taught
me to work, to wash woodwork, wax floors, and clean behind the toilet.

But my priorities were not the same as hers.

Even as a child, I was a grasshopper. I wrote, drew, and daydreamed. I
never outgrew it...

...'What about works?' someone may ask. 'Don't ants work harder than
grasshoppers?'

No. Grasshoppers work differently from ants.

I would like to rewrite the ending of Aesop's grasshopper-and-ants
story like this: It is winter, and the grasshopper is walking in the
snow, talking to herself and answering herself. She wears a yellow
slicker over her sweater because she can't find her parka (which is
buried in the debris under her bed). Because she was out of groceries
this morning, she is eating a brownie with a carton of milk bought at
the local convenience store which, thank heaven, is open twenty-four
hours a day. The door in the tree where the ants live swings open. The
queen ant appears and says to the grasshopper, 'We are bored to death.
Won't you tell us a story or at least a good joke? Our teenagers are
driving us crazy; maybe you could write them a play to perform, or
just a roadshow? Do you have any ideas for a daddy-daughter party?'

The grasshopper replies that she has ideas for all of them. So the ant
invites her in and seats her at a spotless kitchen table with pencil
and paper, and the grasshopper writes the roadshow.

The ant feeds her guest a slice of homemade bread, fresh from the
oven, and a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice. 'How do you get
all of these ideas?' she asks the grasshopper.

'They come to me,' says the grasshopper, 'while I am taking long hot baths.'

I am a grasshopper. I work hard at writing, at teaching, at singing
and dancing. I work hard at mothering. I have taught my four boys some
grasshopper ways. They can all make chocolate-chip cookies and
brownies without a recipe.

My mother used to say, 'I don't know where you came from.' This
bothered me. If she didn't know, I certainly didn't. But I found out
where I came from years later when I went back to Holland for the
first time since I was five years old. I stayed with my paternal
grandmother--Oma--who lived in Utrecht. In her, I found another
grasshopper. When she set her alarm for nine o'clock in the morning, I
knew where I came from. I came from Oma.

I came from you too, Mother. Otherwise I would never clean under my
bed. And like ants and grasshoppers, I also came from God.

ANTS
by Nonavee Jones

Ants ain't so bad. In fact, I love being around them. Ants facilitate
grasshoppers.

Example:

Grasshopper to Ant: I want to do this never-before-done thing.

Ant to Grasshopper: NO NO NO! Why would you want to do that, people
don't do that, besides, it could possibly be dangerous!

Grasshopper to Ant: But I really want to do it. Can you picture it? It
would be great.

Ant to Grasshopper: Well if you must, take these precautions (yadda
yadda) so you won't blow up the place. In fact I have some great
ant-ideas...

Grasshopper: Cool.

Ant: Cool.

the grasshopper goes round
the ant goes thru
together we will know what to dew

posted August 27, 2008 04:32 AM            

~ Jack Kroll, Newsweek

"All you to whom rough labor is dear... you put up with yourselves badly;
your diligence is flight, and the will to self-forgetfulness.
You have not enough capacity in you -- not even for idling."

~ Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra

"I'd be a laborer too, if I had no other purpose in the world, and wasnt busy being awed by this thing called "life",
feeling these overwhelming things called "feelings", and contemplating the myriad mysteries of our very existence.
In view of all of this, who has time or energy to "grunt and sweat under a weary life"?
I say, in perfect candor, "give me liberty", true liberty, "or give me death",
and I would ungrudgingly take my own life if the choice were put to me --
either to live an empty life of conformity and servitude, or to renounce that life altogether.
In the meantime, and while I am permitted this liberty, I will live as God intended;
following my own inner lights, and dancing along to the music of the highest spheres."

~ Valerian The Fool

"I never done nothin' with my life.
I never waged no war on no poor people.
I never shot no child in the face.
I never payed no taxes to no corrupt government.
I never competed for a place in the rat race.
I never improved nothin' that didnt need no improvin'.
I never played into no consumer culture trap.
I never took no sh!t from nobody for no f*ckin' paycheck.
I never whored myself like no soulless automaton drone."

~ The Free Radicals

"I love all the beautiful, gentle, lazy people."

posted August 27, 2008 06:39 PM            

juni

------------------
~
What we do for ourselves dies with us. What we do for others and the world is immortal"~

posted August 28, 2008 12:25 AM            

Proverbs 13:11:
"Wealth gotten by vanity shall be diminished: but he that gathereth by labour shall increase."

2 Thessalonians 3:10
“Those who do not work should not eat.”

Proverbs 6:6
Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise:

Well, so much for the carefree grasshoppers who work not but spend their time in frivolous pursuits.

Eleanore,

Yes, yes, yes...those evil ants who toil in the fields and in the factories producing the goods we all depend on; those of the red necks and the calloused hands just don't get it.

Don't they know the grasshoppers among us are due the fruits of their labors...just because the grasshoppers didn't ask to be born but since they were, their just deserves are to be maintained...and in the grandest style of those who labor long and hard? Shocking that the ants just don't get it.

posted August 28, 2008 12:55 AM              

Still, I prefer the Ladybug. I hear she knew when to attend to the practical matters of living and when to attend to the essential.

Now it came to pass, as they went, that he entered into a certain village: and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house.
And she had a sister called Mary, which sat at Jesus' feet, and heard his word.
But Martha was cumbered about much serving, and came to him, and said, Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? bid her therefore that she help me.
And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things:
But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.

posted August 28, 2008 01:19 AM            

I would say that all the innovators in the world are grasshoppers disguised as ants...or vice versa.

posted August 28, 2008 07:17 PM            

But what does the master himself have to say?

24 No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.
25 Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink;
nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?
26 Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?
27 Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?
28 And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:
29 And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
30 Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?
31 Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?
32 For after all these things do the Gentiles seek, but your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.
33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
34 Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.

~ Matthew 6

TINK,

quote:

---

But Martha was cumbered about much serving, and came to him, and said,
Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? bid her therefore that she help me.
And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things:
But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.

---

posted August 28, 2008 11:48 PM              

Now we ask you, brothers, to respect those who work hard among you, who are over you in the Lord and who admonish you. Hold them in the highest regard in love because of their work. Live in peace with each other. And we urge you, brothers, warn those who are idle, encourage the timid, help the weak, be patient with everyone.

Thessalonians 5:12-14

In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we command you, brothers, to keep away from every brother who is idle and does not live according to the teaching you received from us. For you yourselves know how you ought to follow our example. We were not idle when we were with you, nor did we eat anyone's food without paying for it. On the contrary, we worked night and day, laboring and toiling so that we would not be a burden to any of you. We did this, not because we do not have the right to such help, but in order to make ourselves a model for you to follow. For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: "If a man will not work, he shall not eat." We hear that some among you are idle. They are not busy; they are busybodies. Such people we command and urge in the Lord Jesus Christ to settle down and earn the bread they eat.

2 Thessalonians 3:6-13

Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth.

Ephesians 4:28

Moving on to Paul's Fearless Leader ...

quote:

---

One of my favorites.

---

Yes, I thought you'd appreciate that one. Back when I was in my early 20's, jobless, aimless, mooching off my parents and drowning in a sea of dead philosophers and poets, it was my favorite too.

I don't think working was Martha's mistake. Her error was one of timeliness. The Messiah walks into the house and she's worried about clearing the supper dishes. Worry and tension and stress prevented her from seeing the Light right under her nose.

Speaking of worry and tension, the lilies of the field may not worry or "toil", but they sure do work. Everything in Nature works. Everything in Nature produces and contributes. Nobody slacks off. How familiar are you with Nature? (Hint: reading Walden Pond doesn't count)

Have you inherited your weath, HSC? You've told us you refuse to work. I assume you're not homeless. Given the frequency of your posts, you seem to have access to the internet besides that offered at the library. Who's paying the internet bill? The electric bill? The mortgage? Did you eat today? Someone, somewhere is working to support you. Now that's all very well and good, if for some reason you're genuinely unable to support yourself, but rather than offer your gratitude and respect for this kindness, you insult them?
These are all very personal questions. Of course you have every right to ignore them. But I'd like to know if you have the courage of your convictions as it would add significant weight to your argument.

My Father works unceasingly, and so do I

John 5:17

And finally, to the Big Guy Himself ...

And to Adam he said,"Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you,
'You shall not eat of it, cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life;
thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face
you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken;
for you are dust, and to dust you shall return."

Genesis 3:17-18

And of course it goes without saying that He worked His fingers to the bone for 6 long days then plopped His tired arse into His favorite hammock, read a little Goethe and watched the clouds roll by.

It's still good advice

Always interesting how the Bible seems able, no matter the argument, to offer fodder for both the defense and the prosecution.

"This requires wisdom ..."

posted August 29, 2008 12:58 AM            

"In as much as you've done it to the least of my grasshoppers, you've done it unto me." - Jesus (paraphrased)

posted August 29, 2008 01:54 AM            

"Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the labour that I had laboured to do:
and, behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the sun."

TINK,

It is highly personal, and you needn't take all my wise-ass comments as literal expressions of my views. Come, you should know me better than that by now. There is hardly any labor undertaken on my behalf which would not be undertaken in my absence, and the excess money would, for the most part, be spent in harmful ways. For instance, the internet connection would still be paid for, but would be going to waste. As it is, I live on peanuts, which doesnt bother me in the least, and those peanuts have allowed me to live long enough to produce more than a handful of gems of wisdom, rivaling almost anything you can point to in antiquity; yet, while you humbly point to those stars, I proudly dare to set fresh stars in the firmament over your head. It could easily be argued that my idleness has produced more objects of value than most people's labor, and that I more than earn my keep; whether or not I have accepted payment for all that I have freely distributed. And I am certain I could not have produced these things in "captivity". I've also had people tell me that I am, in fact, not at all idle. That I am, rather, working constantly, questioning myself, others, and the world around me. My therapist (a very intelligent woman in her own right) is enthralled every other week with whats been brewing in my mind and soul, and completely overwhelmed after just an hour of listening, -- but, for me, the work is never done. And its true, this is exhausting work. So many people seem to avoid it like the plague. ("Its a dirty job, but somebody's gotta do it.") All things considered, I'm relatively pleased with what has come of it, and it seems many others are too, for I rarely pass a day without hearing people praising my contributions to the heavens, telling me how it enlightened them somehow, gave them hope, answered some question, or rekindled the sense of beauty in their hearts. Call it arrogance, but when you force a man to defend himself, he's liable to speak of himself in glowing terms, and to cite the most shining evidence in his favor.

quote:

---

Speaking of worry and tension, the lilies of the field may not worry or "toil", but they sure do work. Everything in Nature works. Everything in Nature produces and contributes. Nobody slacks off. How familiar are you with Nature?

---

Well said, TINK. But the question is, "how familiar are you?"; since, by your own logic, I am a working part of Nature.

posted August 29, 2008 02:09 AM            

I meant to do my work today
But a brown bird sang in the apple tree,
And a butterfly flitted across the field,
And all the leaves were calling me.

And the wind went sighing over the land,
Tossing the grasses to and fro,
And a rainbow held out its shining hand--
So what could I do but laugh and go?

________________________________________________________

Leisure by W.H. Davies

What is this life, if full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare,

No time to stand beneath the boughs
And stare as long as sheep or cows.

No time to see, when woods we pass,
Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.

No time to see, in broad daylight,
Streams full of stars, like skies at night.

No time to turn at Beauty's glance,
And watch her feet, how they can dance.

No time to wait till her mouth can
enrich that smile her eyes began.

A poor life this if, full of care
We have no time to stand and stare.

posted August 29, 2008 02:11 AM            

~ Rabindranath Tagore

posted August 29, 2008 02:30 AM            

And what is it to work with love?
It is to weave the cloth with threads drawn from your heart,
even as if your beloved were to wear that cloth.
It is to build a house with affection,
even as if your beloved were to dwell in that house.
It is to sow seeds with tenderness and reap the harvest with joy,
even as if your beloved were to eat the fruit.
It is to charge all things you fashion with a breath of your own spirit,
And to know that all the blessed dead
are standing about you and watching...

And he alone is great who turns the voice of the wind into a song made sweeter by his own loving.

Work is love made visible. And if you cannot work with love but only with distaste,
it is better that you should leave your work and sit at the gate of the temple and take alms of those who work with joy.
For if you bake bread with indifference, you bake a bitter bread that feeds but half man's hunger.
And if you grudge the crushing of the grapes, your grudge distils a poison in the wine.
And if you sing though as angels, and love not the singing, you muffle man's ears to the voices of the day and the voices of the night.

posted August 29, 2008 08:19 AM            

Ah, the insight of A Bug's Life. No pretenses of grasshoppers with daisies and peace pipes, please.

Perhaps the ants deserve some slack time, too. Yeah. Nobody gives them any credit or thanks anyway. Just "work harder and give more you selfish, greedy jerks". The ants should all sit on their arses and think deep thoughts and complain about how no one is providing for them. Sadly, the ants and grasshoppers would then both starve to death. Quite a pickle you find yourself in to survive when you are obligated to give away a large portion of what you worked for to those who delight in their "greater" beingness but don't feel the need to contribute, even minimally, to the rest on any practical level. Some day they'll find something not beneath them to work at. One day, they'll give back something or other. And there's a small chance it will be great. That chance is more than enough for everyone else's contributions. Heavens, Tink, where have you been flitting away to?

I can't say I can relate to feeling entitled to have other people provide for me while I do nothing but dream and complain about lack. Now, giving of one's choice to help someone else get on their own feet? That's a priceless act, thanks or no.

posted August 29, 2008 09:53 AM              

So you're saying your freeloading is, in fact, a service? I see.

Not to worry. I didn't take all the wise ass comments too literally. I realize none of this amounts to much at all. It's a game. Most of our selected quotations have very little to do with the subject matter at hand.
I understand and sympathize with your distaste and distrust of materialism and the mindless drudgery that most souls willingly endure. I share the same reservations. Truthfully, I'd like nothing better than to hide myself away in a quiet convent and study my navel. It's difficult to live in the world yet be not of it. I only question the suggestion that we are somehow superior if we aimlessly wander the countryside, begging bowl in hand. Someone has to get up in the morning and go to work in order to fill that bowl of yours. Gratitude and humility are called for here - not self righteousness and delusions of grandeur. I also understand that the latter work as much needed charms of protection for you. The Commanding Self always demands a defense. That need points to an essential struggle and discontent with your situation?

I'm going to return to my original post. We all have both ant and grasshopper qualities. We all tend to lean towards one or the other. I think the key is balance between the Ahrimanic Ants (hard, cold, Godless materialism) and the Luciferic Grasshoppers (emotional, illusionary egoism). I think the key is responding appropriately to any given situation. Someone needs to wash the dishes. If the Messiah is paying you a visit, let the dishes wait until tomorrow.

quote:

---

Well said, TINK. But the question is, "how familiar are you?"; since, by your own logic, I am a working part of Nature.

---

For a long time I wasn't. I spent a long time with my nose and my heart buried in a book. There are some that would rather read about something than actually experience it.

But no, you're not "part of Nature". Neither am I. We work - and idle - far outside the Divine rhythms of Nature.

Idle hands are the devil's playground

posted August 29, 2008 10:08 AM              

quote:

---

Gratitude and respect, Tink? For the lowly and boggled down with life's mundane practicalities? Are you feeling well?!

---

Yeah, it was stupid. I'm just a clueless ant.

quote:

---

Can you imagine, if the predictions are right, the kinds of trouble to be had when people are faced with doing for themselves again straight from the land?

---

ooooh good point.

I have a room reserved at Juni's farm
Not really looking forward to the cold winters, but I can't wait to see the llamas.

quote:

---

True genius? From one horse's mouth ... 1% inspiration, 99% perspiration

---

Excellent! That settles it, I think.