The Grasshopper and the Ant

I love the fable of The Grasshopper and the Ant. I think most of us see ourselves in one of these two categories. There might be a few that are a good mix but most of us are one or the other. I am an ant; this statement will not shock any of you that are reading. I work 60 hours a week outside my home, this is a lot even for a teacher. This does not take into consideration the time that I come home and try to find cool stuff for school. This is just plain working outside the home time. Very few people want to work that much but I am grateful for the hours that I have because they help support my kids. My kids are my life and they have been from the time they were born.

This weekend I had the time of my life. If you ask what I did, I would say had lunch with a friend that makes me smile. I then played the rest of the weekend. It was fun being a grasshopper for even 12 hours. Playing is important as long as work is done but because I enjoyed being a grasshopper, so much I then had to work twice as hard.

As a member of the ant colony, we do mock the grasshoppers. We say, "Why do I have to do all of the work." "Don't they know that is the wrong way to do that?" "They take too long and I am on a strict schedule." My favorite of all the ant sayings is, "I will just do it myself because then I know it will get done." We ants do not like to hear the excuses of the grasshopper.

I am sure in the grasshopper meetings they are mocking the ants. Of course, they have nothing important to say because they are wrong. I am kidding. I guess their meetings would go something like this. "Well I was told not to help because I don't know anything." "Those ants think they are experts at everything." "Why can't they just have fun?" I am sure that when they say, "What if they broke their pencils they wouldn't have anything to cross off their list," gets a big laugh.

I want to have fun, but I do not know how. I really don't; it is hard to find time to do something that simple. I use my summer vacation for fun things but even then, my inner ant comes out. Today I had to put my grasshopper back to rest and maybe find time to play in a few months. I am so grateful to a wonderful friend that let me play and have fun. Grasshopper days are fun but because moving day is here, there is no time for play.