The Grasshopper and the Ants - Aesop's Fables - A Story in Self-Reliance

Illustration by Arthur Rackham

Anyone familiar with Aesop's Fables will remember how the carefree grasshopper sang her summer away (summertime and the living is easy right?) while meantime, the clever ants were preparing for their needs in the winter to come.

A summary of the fable goes as follows:

The ants were employing a fine winter's day in busily drying some grain which had got rather damp in storage.  A grasshopper approached them, and earnestly begged for a few grains, as she said 'I'm simply starving.'  The ants asked of her, 'Why did you not store up some food for the winter?'  The grasshopper replied, 'Fact is; I was so busy singing that I simply didn't have the time.' The ants chuckled and replied, 'Well, then, if you were foolish enough to sing all summer; you might just as well dance all winter.'

Moral: Work comes before play, Plan ahead, Put something away for hard times

There are some harsh but easy-to-understand, simple truths in Aesop's Fables; and many I believe are worth revisiting and reincorporating into today's world; where common sense is sometimes shown lacking.  What was true and authentic and "penned" more than 2,000 years ago is still true today, because the human condition is constant. The ants teach us to treasure self-reliance, while the grasshopper shows us the danger of prioritizing play to the exclusion of all else. We can learn from the ants in many ways: plant a small garden, preserve our harvest, reuse and re-purpose items, learn a new skill that helps save money around the home, think ahead and plan for future needs, and put aside a little money if at all possible ... all these will serve us well when winter comes.

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Bibliography: Aesop's Fables, Arthur Rackham, Pan Books, 1975

Meadow Sweet Grove © V. Buchanan 2017 / edited 2019 & 2020