Submissions     Contact     Advertise     Donate     BlogRoll     Subscribe                         

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

The Ant and the Grasshopper

In a field one summer's day a Grasshopper was hopping about,
chirping and singing to its heart's content. An Ant passed by,
bearing along with great toil an ear of corn he was taking to the
nest.

"Why not come and chat with me," said the Grasshopper,
"instead of toiling and moiling in that way?"

"I am helping to lay up food for the winter," said the Ant,
"and recommend you to do the same."

"Why bother about winter?" said the Grasshopper; we have got
plenty of food at present." But the Ant went on its way and
continued its toil. When the winter came the Grasshopper had no
food and found itself dying of hunger, while it saw the ants
distributing every day corn and grain from the stores they had
collected in the summer. Then the Grasshopper knew:

It is best to prepare for the days of necessity.

We have all been told this story at some point in our lives. It's about working hard and reaping the rewards. It is along those same lines of "Saving for a rainy day"

In 1910 EM Forester wrote in his book Howards End (a novel about class relations in the turn of the 20th century England) "She could not explain in so many words, but she felt that those who prepare for all the emergencies of life beforehand may equip themselves at the expense of joy."

Both these items do have relevance.

Be the ant but never forfeit your joy. My role here on APN and on KSPN is to share my skills at long term self sufficiency. The thing is, anyone hat has spent any time reading my words, knows that I do not go about it alone. I have many ants. Those I barter with, good neighbors, and those that take their time to teach me new things. Skills should be shared, and retained for later use. Find the joy in what you do. My homestead, my family, my friends and my readers are my joy.

Remember this when you prep. Life is way too short to overstress on everything.

You can get Aesop's fables free here
you can read Howards End free here
courtesy of Project Gutenberg.

No comments:

Post a Comment