F
There are many stories and traditions about "the great king gets perspective"... I also like the tradition that if you were some great Roman general being cheered by a crowd you should have a guy who follows you about whispering "memento mori*" in your ear.
These are things we have understood for a long time in many human cultures.
Now why am I going on about this and feeling exasperated? Hm.
*remember you will someday die
The exoskeleton isn't most of the bug... I think the muscle tissue and fat is what contains the calories and nutrition. We can't digest cellulose either but eat a lot of it with vegetables.
Now... I don't eat any bugs. And probably never will. But that's just "cultural" as in I don't get it, and it makes me sad.
But, they are highly nutritious. And some of them taste good. (enough people claim this I believe them.)
I think that's just a free sample. You can get the the whole thing with a library app for free, or buy the audio book with a service. It's 14 hours and goes by fast!
Funny for you to imply there might be any other possible reason.
Think positive:
In an Ordovician sea of radiodonts be a radioDO
Commentary:
In reality ant queens don't lead their people much at all. But, I don't think the story works unless Solomon encounters a tiny version of himself.
I do think ant queens feel immense responsibly to lay eggs. And all ants think they are doing the most important project in the world. The scale of the adversaries only proves this more.
Solomon told his soldiers to walk with more care and let the queen go back to her people.
After that, as he looked down from his flying carpet at the tiny rows of his own men, he found he had much to contemplate.
He might be magnificent, but on whose palm did he rest? Would any of his works or achievements be anything if not for nature and the world made by God?
The End.
"I suppose I must be. I am responsible for many thousands and must guide them past perils like the feet of your soldiers!" Said the ant.
Solomon laughed at this but the ant queen did not join him.
"But you are tiny!" he tried to explain. "How could you be greater than a King like me?"
"We are more alike than not." Said the ant "And anyway, who is resting on the hand of the great King? It is I, isn't it?"
She said.
5/
So, the king bent over and the ant queen climbed on to his hand. He lifted her up so they could speak eye to eye.
"These are my daughters and colony." She explained. "Your soldiers would have trampled them. I do not 'disparage' I give factual warnings."
And Solomon could see the sense in this. He found it amusing somehow, that the queen was so self-possessed.
"Ant Queen, who do you think is the most magnificent in these lands?" he asked.
The ant queen seemed to think about it for a bit. 4/
He looked around, but only saw his own soldiers who were now standing wondering why they had stopped.
"And now it seems he's come down to look at us." Said the little voice. "But he's still not even looking where he is going."
Then, at last, King Solomon spotted the source. At his feet in the sand a colony of ants was struggling to cross the road. And amongst them their queen.
"Why do you disparage my men?" Said Solomon.
"Pick me up so we can speak properly." said the ant queen. 3/
"Maybe I am magnificent too." He mused as the desert air ruffled his lovely robes.
But then he heard another voice. A tiny voice but one very self possessed.
"Beware of these men, my daughters! They do not look where their boots may land. Take heed!" Said the tiny but somehow imperious little voice.
It was coming from far far below.
Confused, and a little offended the King brought his magic carpet down to the earth. Settling not far from the voice. 2/
#KingSolomon and the #Ant
(I will tell the story of King Solomon and the ant. I've read a lot of versions of this story and this is my own based on what I know about ants.)
King Solomon continued his journey flying over a vast desert on his flying carpet. Below him his army marched in neat rows. He could see for miles from the great height. "This is magnificent." he thought.
And because he could understand the speech of the animals he heard the birds agree.
#threads #storyTime
1/
I didn't know about this book. But I do know about King Solomon ... Because one of the creatures he speaks to is an ant queen.
It's fascinating to me that in most of the sources they get the sex of the ants correct. They don't use he/him. And not just for the queen.
The ant queen humbles Solomon. Which I enjoy.
"consider her ways and be wise"
I think they want us to think they don't have to justify themselves any longer.
But the funny thing about these conservatives is many of them do care about how some concepts of legitimacy.
Giving up is the wrong response.
My nephew just keeps getting more excited to become a problem in the best way the more he learns. Totally undaunted by all this nonsense somehow. But then he grew up with the world like this. He has no sense of "it used to be not like this" and has moved on to "it's like this and how can I use that to take it all apart in a new way."
I would write for the got dang Atlantic if they'd pay me. I will not judge anyone for that.
I must warn you. If you read this book you will become a bit of an annoying person who, whenever someone says something like "pigeons are stupid" or "snakes don't have feelings" you may launch into a whole discourse about how "intelligence is contextual" and other wild things.
But I was already a bit like this it just made it worse.
My impression of him having spent a whole book reading the way he presents natural history is very positive.
I also avoid The Atlantic... didn't know he had anything to do with that?
That sounds great. I will put it on my list.