Things I Learned From the Ants

I took the kids out to the pool a couple of days ago, and while they splashed I watched ants. Sounds fascinating, no?

All that ant watching made me think of how small they are compared to how big we humans are. How we can take out an ant in one squish, or we can show mercy and let the ants happily scamper about. Kill the ants and they won't bother you, or let them live and take the risk that they'll turn around and nip you. It's a choice. We have the power over them, and we can choose to use it or not.

I think in life we have that same choice. We can crush someone that we perceive as a threat, or we can show that person kindness and take the risk of being burned by them down the road. You can mow people over with your power, squishing them beneath your heavy thumb, or you can show mercy, all the while knowing you do have the power to crush someone. It's a quiet strength.

Elizabeth Dole said, "We have learned that power is a positive force if it is used for positive purposes."

Lord Acton had this to say about power: "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men."

We are all in positions of power, whether it be in our homes, our jobs, our friendships, our relationships. We have to choose how we're going to use (or abuse) our power.

Squash the ants, or let them live.

"We thought, because we had power, we had wisdom." Stephen Vincent Benet

"I hope our wisdom will grow with our power, and teach us, that the less we use our power the greater it will be." Thomas Jefferson

"You can have power over people as long as you don't take everything away from them. But when you've robbed a man of everything, he's no longer in your power." Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

All this from some little ants.