in my home office and working on his virtual second grade schoolwork [ a sentence I never imagined I ’ d be writing ]. As he read the story out loud to me , the parallel between the fable and our current industry predicament hit me . Here ’ s a quick summary .
It ’ s summertime and the weather is gorgeous . A grasshopper is singing and playing in the sunshine and comes across a line of ants marching along carrying food back to their home . He says to an ant , “ The weather is too pretty to be working so hard . You should take a break to enjoy it and gather food later !”
The ant responds , “ There won ’ t be food to gather later . In the winter , we ’ ll have food because we prepared now and you should prepare , too !” The grasshopper shakes his head and continues singing and playing .
Winter comes , the seeds and plants are all gone , and the grasshopper is cold and hungry . He comes across the ants again and asks them , “ I can ’ t find any food . Do you have any to spare ?”
This is where interpretations vary . My nephew ’ s version concluded with the ants sharing food and warmth with the grasshopper and advising him that next year he should do better preparing for the winter .
However , this fable typically ends with the grasshopper dying — the consequence of not preparing for the future . That would be a little dark for 7-year-olds , I suppose .
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