Work, Duty, Fulfillment, Tightropes
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"You have a duty to your family," one beetle told the others. "You must provide food, shelter, and water for them. And you must provide a fine education for your children. You have a duty to create a store of seeds that you may pass on to them when you're gone. And if you want to have a chance at retiring from collecting food all day when you're older, then you must start preparing now!"
"Whimsical notions like 'following your bliss' and expressing yourself are," he stopped and looked around cautiously before whispering, "for the birds. Why do you have to seek pleasure in everything you do?"
Another beetle chimed in, "But we're made to create beauty and to seek truth! When we use our creativity we serve the Hand that created us! As long as my family and I have our basic needs met, what else do we need? More seeds? A softer soil to rest in? All-inclusive resort in the tree next door? Are we not, then, trapped in the gears of the economical Machine that would use us to do its bidding? To consume more, more, more? While basic security is important, so too is the soul's nourishment. I've seen beetles toil endlessly without pause, and others who danced on leaves without a care."
The first beetle replied, "And I've seen countless free-spirited, idealistic beetles wrestle and toil in their own way. Resolute in their artistic endeavors and their desire for meaning while their families struggle and go hungry."
"I don't have time for this bullshit conversation," said a third beetle. "I have just enough time to distract myself during my fifteen minute break to help me get through the next three hours of mind-numbing work of collecting seeds for my boss so I can eat tonight. What choice do I have in the matter anyway when the lawmakers have their foot on my neck?"
"Dad, what's he doing up there!?" a tiny beetle said to the second beetle.
"Oh son," the first beetle scoffed. "That's some delusional beetle who thinks he can do it all. He thinks he can create so much value for others doing work he loves that he'll receive more seeds than he or his family could ever need."
"It's impossible," laughed the dutiful beetle. βI canβt wait to watch him fail.βΒ
"Must be nice," murmured the third beetle as he walked away, his work break just having ended.
The beetle they were referring to, walking a tightrope as he were, didn't catch a word they said.