The Ant, the Grasshopper and the Farmer's Boot

The old fable of the grasshopper and the ant occupies my thoughts a good deal lately. You know the story, the first chilly blasts of impending winter have shriveled the plants and times are suddenly hard. Mr. Ant is surveying the bleak landscape and sees Mr. Grasshopper hopping along, looking stressed.

There follows an Improving Lecture from Mr. Ant to Mr. Grasshopper, comparing their relative situations, much to Mr. Ant's advantage, since he is perched on a deeply dug network of warm galleries chock full of foodstuffs. While Mr. Grasshopper spent all summer doing his thing, hopping giddily from one diversion to another, Mr. Ant toiled like, well like an ant, and prepared for the coming winter. Industry vs. Sloth. The opposite poles of approaches to Life.

I am constitutionally a Grasshopper. The long grind of regular effort and planning ahead do not come naturally to me, when I can manage them at all. Necessity has led me to long stints of Ant-like effort; having children is a great spur even to Grasshoppers. Something in me rebels at the tone of the Improving Lecture, however. Mr. Ant is so smug, sitting on his anthill, I want to smack him.

So, herewith an addendum to the fable of Ant and Grasshopper.

Right about the time that the Ant is really getting into his lecture, the farmer whose field has been home to both Ant and Grasshopper strides into the scene, and his boot crushes the life from both insects. The farmer doesn't even notice, and continues his tour of his fallow field. Below the flattened bodies of Mr. Ant and Mr. Grasshopper, the bounteous galleries of the anthill begin their slow decay into soil, which will be turned by the plow again next Spring. New Ants and new Grasshoppers will begin their season in the sun. But the Farmer's Boot comes for them all, and it is folly to believe that thrift and industry are any guarantee of survival.

Morals 'R Us Say Republican voters

In the Chattanooga Times Free Press Sunday's op-ed section, I found an interesting column by Leonard Pitts, under the heading "Where is the Christian left...", which was not Pitts' subject for his original column in the Miami Herald. Pitts titled his piece, "Where's the morality in Bush's policy?" In response to the citing of "moral values" as a determining factor in many voters' support of President Bush, Pitts opined:

Beg your pardon, but one is hard pressed to find much evidence of morality in Bush's ineptly prosecuted war, his erosion of civil rights, and the loss of international credibility that his policies have caused. Unless, of course, one has been quaking in one's boots at the prospect of same-sex couples making a commitment that straight couples have avoided like SARS.

Pitts goes on to question why the Democrats have effectively ceded Christianity as a political trademark to the Republicans. I think that is a good question. I suspect that many on the right would say that the "left" or "Demoncrats" pursue irrelgious policies and therefore are not entitled to wear their faith like battle armor.

A recurring theme in Pitts' column is Jesus' command to Peter, "Feed my sheep." In fairness, many of the religious right are concerned with helping "those less fortunate than ourselves," but not with tax money. Taxes are evil, voluntary charity is good. The question comes down to whether charity is adequate to the needs of a changing society in an increasingly brutal economic climate here and in the world at large.

Of course, not much tax money is needed to forbid same-sex marriage or require that textbooks soft-pedal evolution. I would like to see a conservative movement that was as concerned to conserve personal liberty, in areas other than gun control, as to conserve government tax revenues.

Surviving Bad Choices

Time to take a deep breath, hold it, and let it slowly out. This country has great reserves of common sense. We are, I firmly believe, basically a good and decent people. We have survived bad government, bad business practices, bad luck, bad money and a long list of other evils.

We have, within my memory, survived an evil war and the extremes of opinion it fomented. We have survived vindictive, unprincipled presidents, and we came out of all those trials stronger.

Tuesday's election was won both in the popular and the electoral vote by a man I believe is deeply unworthy of the office held by men such as Washington, Jefferson and Lincoln, who refuses to learn from his mistakes or even acknowledge that he has erred. Faced with a choice between the unwarranted swagger and obdurate self-satisfaction of Bush, and the dull, uncomfortable candidate that the Democrats chose to run, the voters by a margin of two per cent. opted for swagger over dull deliberative argument.

Four more years and several nominations for Supreme Court positions give George W. Bush more power than he can ever appreciate in a deep and responsible way. For him, these powers are the perquisites of what he called "collateral." His "mandate."

The job I have, that all reasoning Americans have, is to make the best of what we have, to be a loyal but unflagging opposition to each and every bad decision this flawed and limited man is bound to make over the next four years.

Stay the course and pray for grace, those are my watchwords.