Remember the fable of the The Ant and the Cricket (sometimes the cricket is a grasshopper) by Aesop? They were among the first things that popped into my head in a dream this morning. Basically the little hard working ant works all summer collecting and storing food while the cricket sings the summer away. When the winter comes the cricket goes to the ant to beg for food only to hear the harsh ant reply: “Since you sang like a fool in the summer you better be prepared to dance the winter away!”. The moral is that lazy people lose, but could also be that greedy ants dislike to share.
OK so its easy pop-psychology to say that I am concerned about my work and not being prepared enough. But I also have an alternate interpretation (surely not unique) that the cricket is actually not lazy but rather is busy doing other necessary work. Maybe the ant enjoyed listening to the crickets music while gathering winter supplies. Oh, dear you might think, while returning to more pop-psychology he is either in denial (which would be the wrong pop-psych term) or he is rationalising his actions after the fact.
The good news is that I was reminded of my childhood attachment to Aesop’s Fables and I intend to get a copy to replace the one I lost decades ago. For now I will make do with Bestiaria Latina since they have an enormous collection of myths and fables online.