Autumnilia: Bugs' Lives

Saturday, September 01, 2007

Bugs' Lives

I hope you have seen the Disney/Pixar film A Bug's Life by now. The Web site for the film says the inspiration came from the kid's tale of the Ant and the Grasshopper, showing that industriousness is better than idleness. In the movie, Flik is one ant who stands up to grasshoppers who not only fiddle away their lives but DEMAND food from the industrious ants. Life isn't fair is another message from the movie.

Still, we can learn a lot from bugs. As I write this, we're coming off a week in which the noisy cicadas and locusts in the daytime are gradually being replaced by grasshoppers and crickets at night. I live by a river, and it is fun to watch the bats swoop around the bridge scooping up bugs at twilight. I found a spider trying to make a link between the front door and the mail slot. Seasons change, and the shift in bug life is one sign of that. People change too, and that is sort of what is bugging me now. We hope that we will grow and improve and get smarter and wiser and less prone to screwups. At the same time, we hope that the good things will stay the same.

Alas, the former hope doesn't always happen, and certainly the latter doesn't seem to happen either. Autumnilia is not just a blog, but a condition, it seems. As I get older, I hoped I would get wiser. And I hoped that things that are now wistful memories to me would have been part of the normal condition. A year ago, I thought I was a lot smarter than I feel now. And a year ago, I was longing for, working toward and embracing the whole concept of change.

So in that sense, looking at then from the perspective of now, I can say things do change. They definitely do change. Ants that can get over the idea of letting the grasshoppers run the show are better off, anyway.

The image at the top is from the Pixar Web site for the movie A Bug's Life. I hope use of the image in the context of this Blog entry is within the realm of fair use. And if it isn't, I hope the powers that be understand I had good intentions. Here's the site link, by the way: http://www.pixar.com/featurefilms/abl/

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Great Thoughts of the Moment

"Arguing with a zealot is only slightly easier than tunneling through a mountain with your forehead."
"You can live for many causes, but you can only die for one. Pick that one very carefully."
"Hard work pays off in the future; laziness pays off now."
"Hyenas laugh becasue they know what's coming next."
"When I was 5 years old my mom told me the key to life is happiness. When I went to school they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I wrote down "Happy". They told me I didn't understand the assignment and I told them they didnt understand life."
"Gun control is being able to hit your target."
"Going to church, temple, mosque or synagogue doesn't make you religious any more than standing in a garage makes you a car."
"Some people are alive today only because it's illegal to shoot them."
"The only substitute for good manners is fast reflexes."
"Never take yourself too seriously, and mock those who do."
"Last night I lay in bed looking up at the stars in the sky and I thought to myself, where the heck is the ceiling. "
"When cryptography is outlawed, bayl bhgynjf jvyy unir cevinpl. "
``Build a man a fire and he'll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire and he'll be warm for the rest of his life.''
"Sacred cows make the best hamburger. "
"I think animal testing is a terrible idea; they get all nervous and give the wrong answers. "
"Procrastination gives you something to look forward to."
"A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices"
"It takes 46 muscles to frown but only four to flip 'em the bird."
"Even the fear of death is nothing compared to the fear of not having lived authentically and fully."
"Everyone needs to believe in something. I believe I'll have another beer. "
''Sharing food with another human being is an intimate act that should not be indulged in lightly."
"Imagination is more important than knowledge."
''The eye sees a thing more clearly in dreams than the imagination awake.''
"Depression is merely anger without enthusiasm."
"The fisherman knows that the sea is dangerous and the storm terrible, but they have never found these dangers sufficient reason for remaining ashore.'' (Vincent Van Gogh)"
''People who keep stiff upper lips find that it's damn hard to smile.''
"Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so. "

Autumnilia

Reader's Guide

Saturday, September 01, 2007

Bugs' Lives

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The Road Not Taken