Posted on 03/09/2010 6:10:24 AM PST by reaganaut1
Once upon a time, there was a happy-go-lucky grasshopper who lived only to have fun. All through the long summer days, he would sing and dance, and laugh at the industrious ants who were busily preparing for winter. But then cruel winter came, and the grasshopper was starving. In desperation, he approached the ants' nest and begged for food. "You should have danced less and worked more," the ants scolded him, but then, being basically kind-hearted creatures, they decided to give him a few of their hard-won crumbs.
The next summer was exactly like the one before: Once more, the ants worked without pause, while the grasshopper sang and danced. When winter came, he appealed to the ants again, only this time, he brought his 10,000 children along with him. "It's thanks to your kindness," he said, "that I made it through the winter, and was able to father these little ones. Surely, you won't let us all starve to death."
The ants convened a meeting of their Council to decide what to do. On the one hand, they felt a certain responsibility for the grasshopper and his huge brood; on the other hand, feeding 10,000 growing grasshoppers could make a serious dent in their winter provisions.
Finally, one Council member had a brilliant idea. "Let's just take some food from the hardest-working ants. They've got more than enough, and won't mind sharing their good fortune with the needy grasshoppers."
The Council-of-Ants thought this was a splendid plan, and quickly acted on it. As a result, the grasshoppers survived the winter, the ants congratulated themselves on their compassion, and hardly anyone noticed that the hardest-working ants, whose food had been seized, left the nest in disgust.
(Excerpt) Read more at spectator.org ...
Give a man a fish, he eats for a day. Teach a man to fish..
What do you mean Obama wants to ban fishing???
http://sports.espn.go.com/outdoors/saltwater/news/story?id=4975762
Jim Quinn wrote the ant and the grasshopper story almost 20 years ago now and he still never gets credited with this story while people go right on using it or variations of it. This is a variation. People call in his radio show and tell him about it. He doesn’t gripe much but I think it does bother him because I don’t think he gets the respect he deserves.
re: Give a man a fish
But make sure he knows how to cook it and how to keep it from spoiling until he gets it cooked, or he will get a sick and find a slick lawyer and sue you for all you’re worth.
As my Mom used to say, “No good deed goes unpunished!”
Amen!
He based in on one of Aesop’s fables. He probably doesn’t get credit because of that.
Correct. I remember the story from my childhood, in the 40’s.
lol
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