we have all heard the story about the ant and the grasshopper. the story is used to teach the virtues of hard work and saving, and the perils of improvidence.
the other day i stopped by the roadside to watch an army of ants at work. now i understand better the sayings, 'as busy as an ant' and 'as hardworking as an ant'.
the ants were in the process of building a subterranean nest. i watched as they went about their work. each ant would carry a grain of the earth from inside the nest and drop it near the top of the mound. no one ant stopped to ogle at a young female ant (maybe there wasn't any around); no one ant stopped after dropping the load to malinger; no one slowed down his pace to reduce the number of trips; no one stopped for a toilet break; and no ant stopped to talk or exchange information.
they were just so purposefully driven. i did not see any ant that was playing the role of a supervisor. no one was there to oversee the task that had to be done. every ant knew his place and he went about his work without having to take instruction, without having to ask any question and without having to stop to decide whether the load was too big for him or not.
if we humans could work as cooperatively as ants, we would be able to achieve a lot more. but then, we would be working endlessly (antlessly) and mindlessly.
