The Ant and The Grasshopper by Somerset Maugham – another look at this short story is here https://realini.blogspot.com/2014/05/the-ant-and-grasshopper-by-somerset.html - 10 out of 10

 

The Ant and The Grasshopper by Somerset Maugham – another look at this short story is here https://realini.blogspot.com/2014/05/the-ant-and-grasshopper-by-somerset.html

 

10 out of 10

 

 

‘My sympathies were with the grasshopper and for some time I never saw an ant without putting my foot on it…’ this is what Somerset Maugham says, under the guise of the narrator of the tale, and if we disagree with the cruelty, we may feel the same about the moral of the fable which praises the ant at the expense of the grasshopper

 

The take from Aesop https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2024/04/aesops-fables-by-aesop-author-of.html would be that the ant is working hard, assuring it has provisions for winter, while the grasshopper is only singing, enjoying himself and not doing anything about the future, he is not concerned, but he will suffer because of it

As in most cases, we need moderation, albeit in the Somerset Maugham re-telling, the grasshopper wins – spoiler alert – in the shape and form of Tom Ramsay, while his brother, George Ramsay, has the role of the ant in the modern take on the old fable, Tom decides to enjoy life, and ignore the pressure of family, society

 

You can read the story at https://englishliterature.net/william-somerset-maugham/the-ant-and-the-grasshopper Tom spends freely, and when he has no more, he borrows – Carpe Diem appears to be his mantra, the guiding principle, and there is a lot to say about that, praising the attitude, while being cautious about excesses

One of the best books you can read on happiness, to decide if you go with the ant or the grasshopper, is The How of Happiness by Sonja Lyubomirsky, where you find ‘Happiness Activity No 9: Savoring Life’s Joys-paying close attention, taking delight in life’s momentary pleasures and wonders, through thinking, writing, drawing or sharing with another’

 

Which seems to be a vote for the grasshopper https://realini.blogspot.com/2014/07/the-how-of-happiness-by-sonja.html in that we need to savor, then there is Flow, and we can also learn from Tolstoy, who said something like the most important moment is now, the most important person is the one in front of you…

Nevertheless, for me, The Golden Mean of Aristotle https://realini.blogspot.com/2014/07/aristotle-in-ninety-minutes-by-paul.html applies best here, and in most situations, for he places virtue in the middle, on both sides of it, you have excess, bravery is not being crazy and driving on ice with 200km per hour, or sitting home, to void all peril

Fyodor Dostoyevsky weighs in on these issues, for he had been sentenced to death, and was facing the execution squad, with only three minutes left to live, which he wanted to use for saying goodbye to family and friends, pass his life in front of him, and admire a ray of sunshine, falling on a steeple nearby, a cross on top of a church

 

Alhamdulillah, the great thinker was saved, or the czar had had in mind only to scare him, and he lived to tell the story https://realini.blogspot.com/2021/01/the-brothers-karamazov-by-fyodor.html we find this experience, of facing death, looking at the last days on earth, in the magnum opera of the wonderful Fyodor Dostoyevsky

He is the proof that we have despicable Russians, Stalin, Putin, and others, and the fabulous Anton Chekhov, Leo Tolstoy, Ivan Turgenev, and so many more, mathematically, whenever you have a large enough group of people, you find the terrible, the average, and the incredibly disgusting…Trump is another example

 

The best scenario would be to combine the ant and the grasshopper, that is to find your calling, and engage in the activity you like anyway, and make that your job and use the formula offered by Harvard Professor Tal Ben-Shahar, who taught the most popular courses in the history of that most prestigious institution

There is a group of activities that you like, another group of the things you are good at, and a third of the tasks that have meaning for you, and where they overlap you have to look for the secret of happiness, you could be paid to do what you would choose anyway, there is nothing better than being the Grasshopper and The Ant

 

That would be Flow https://realini.blogspot.com/2016/10/flow-by-mihaly-csikszentmihalyi-this-is.html a classic of positive psychology by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, co-founder of positive psychology, who has taken to studying what brings people to The Zone, and it is not sitting on a couch, watching television, being a lazy bum

It is in fact when we are challenged that we feel joy, the conditions of Flow are – this is an autotelic activity, nothing else matters, you are focused, concentrated, control is assured, there are well defined, meaningful goals, time is relative, the experience of a ballerina, a surgeon could be used as examples of expansion, or compression

 

A brain surgeon walks out of a major operation and he says let us have lunch, only to be told that it is time for dinner, what he thought were a few hours, tuned into twice as much, at the same time, a ballerina comes on stage, and the minute she dances there, pirouetting, feel like many hours for her, just like Einstein said

‘Put your hand on a hot stove for a minute and it seems like an hour. Sit with a pretty girl for an hour, and it seems like a minute…” you also have constant, instant feedback, and then the challenges meet skills in order to achieve Flow

 

Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/unique-in-world.html?q=unique+in+the+world – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se

 

 There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know

 

As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/realini-in-newsweek-participant-in.html

 

Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works

 

‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’

 

‚Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus’

 

“From Monty Python - The Meaning of Life...Well, it's nothing very special...Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.”