a long way to travel

I live on the eighth floor of an apartment building, and there are things that I’m just not used to seeing anymore. People walking by my window, for instance, and the presence of certain bugs. Long gone are the days when crickets would overrun my lower floored apartment, playing an insect version of Marco Polo as I desperately tried to find them based solely on their incessant chirping.

So when I saw one lone ant crawling up my wall the other day, it came as a surprise. I realize, of course, that ants can pretty much go anywhere…but the very fact that one would climb up eight stories, simply to visit me, caught me off guard.

Granted, I’m sure that there are little crumbs of Pop Tarts upon my kitchen floor, but is the prospect of obtaining a morsel of a cinnamon flavored breakfast snack reason enough to make the journey? Surely, in the seven floors and 70 apartments below me, someone also shares in my love for Pop Tarts and has left a few crumbs behind.

And as I sat watching this ant, I realized that I may be looking upon the Christopher Columbus of the ant world…an ant that kissed the missus and children ants goodbye, and decided to set off and explore the great unknown. An ant that was in search of a better world, perhaps one where the floors were all made of chocolate icing and where there were mountains of potato chips lying around just asking to be eaten. An ant that would be remembered by future generations of school aged ants, little ant biographies written about him, seeing brave new worlds, finding hidden treasure in each new apartment he ventured into, and establishing a better life for all ants that would come after him.

I stared, rather in awe, of this pioneering ant and the spirit of exploration that seems to pervade life. The need and desire to create our own destiny and make sense of the world around us. I actually respected this little ant.

And then I squashed him.

Because if there’s one thing this ant needed to learn it’s that innovation is a painful process. Besides, he really should have been using the buddy system.