Situational Awareness: Ants and Elephants
submitted by: Col. Alva Leon Matheson
“There once was a very unhappy man who lived in the far away mountains as a farmer. He was growing rice and squash. His farm was not large and it was near a big forest that needed continual burning and clearing. The farm was a lot of work. He was very tired. One night the farmer came home too late, and his wife was very grouchy to him. He had to make a bed on the hard floor of the bamboo hut. He could not sleep. He was not happy!”
“When the sun came up there was no breakfast waiting for him. He was still very tired. His wife would not get up in the morning to fix his food. There was nothing for him to eat. He was not happy. The farmer scowled as he threw the door open and… the door fell off into the mud. The farmer was not happy. As he stumbled down the steps to go to work he didn’t notice a rake lying in his path. He stepped on the rake. It hit him in the head. The farmer was not happy. Without thinking of anything but his ill fortune, the farmer kicked a rock in the ditch and broke his toe. The farmer was not happy. The farmer hobbled on to his field. The farmer was very angry and full of self-pity. Without even thinking about it, he abruptly kicked an ant hill out of frustration! Oh, that hurt!”
“With pain in his foot and sadness in his heart the farmer sat down on a log near where he had painfully disturbed the ants. But while rubbing his aching toe he noticed something moving. It was an ant! The ant was coming toward him down the log. He watched it with indifference for a little while, but when the ant came too close to him he reached for it with his thumb and SQUISHED the hapless ant into oblivion! What a feeling of power and satisfaction the farmer felt. He forgot all about his broken toe.”
“Now, the farmer had something under his control? Here comes another ant down the log, SQUISH! Then another, SQUISH! And another ant, SQUISH! The farmer is so excited he starts stomping on the ant nest. The more he stomps the more ants are stirred up to come forth to do battle. He forgets all about his lazy wife. He forgets all about his bruise from the rock! He forgets about the rake; he forgets about being hungry; he forgets about his lack of breakfast; he even forgets his broken door, AND he even forgets all about his lazy wife? SQUISH! SQUISH! SQUISH! SQUISH! SQUISH! SQUISH!”
“The farmer is so empowered by squishing ants that he failed to hear a large herd of ELEPHANTS coming down the trail… SQUISH!” “No more farmer.”
AL Matheson/Nail 213
FAC Association Historian