I was thinking about a story you hear growing up, one of those Aesop's Fables. In the story, we meet a hard working ant and a lazy free spirited grasshopper. In this example, the hard worker eventually "defeats" the free spirit and gets to theoretically survive the winter on its food reserves while the grasshopper presumably dies.
Posthumously, we are supposed to learn from the grasshopper that we should always plan ahead. There is a hidden, more important lesson, rarely discussed.
The grasshopper is a different creature than the ant, it is in the ant's DNA to work itself to death. Does an ant ever really enjoy itself? It goes to picnics, but does it hang out, or is it always in formation, trying to take what is not his, for his future consumption? It plans for a feast many of its kind don't even live to see. Some ant life cycles are only a few months, such as the black ant. Which means the food it so desperately stole from some human gets consumed by its brother that hasn't even been born. Such great sacrifice for the good of the colony.
Grasshoppers, on the other hand live about 12 months, but only one of those months as an adult and it must reproduce before the cold, by which it then dies. Then it will be an egg, dormant in the soil for about 10 months.
I think a better lesson to learn from this particular fable is that we are all indeed different. Some of us must be good little soldiers, enlist then, where structure can be fed you and thus your skillset and strength of character forged with like minded folk. Learn the arts of discipline, of being the one called upon when life is on the line, when the brave stand up and do what is right for the good of their country, even if you do not survive to see the fruits of your labor.
For some, it is better to live a white hot life, create something that will live on, even at great peril to your life. This happens too often to our artists, beautiful creatures, different, for sure, but in this difference they create for the rest of us. How many artists are taken in the prime of their lives, age 27 seems to be a magic number for many of these types.
There is nothing wrong with either lifestyles, provided you understand the consequences. We can all poo-poo the idea of drugs, but some of the great music and literature was aided by drugs, like it or not. Edgar Allen Poe was a genius, also an alcoholic and quite probably an opium addict. Amy Winehouse, just passed away, made some beautiful music, but you could see the drugs eating her away. Say what you will of the person, their art will live on for the rest of us to enjoy.
I can now say I take offense to comparing quite different animals, what's Aesop gonna do next, race a rabbit against a turtle and tell us the turtle wins? This is unfair and almost insulting in this world of more than seven billion people. Let us be different, provided we can all be of service to us.
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