Democratic Underground Latest Greatest Lobby Journals Search Options Help Login
Google

The Chimp and the Honeybees: A Fable

Printer-friendly format Printer-friendly format
Printer-friendly format Email this thread to a friend
Printer-friendly format Bookmark this thread
This topic is archived.
Home » Discuss » Archives » General Discussion (Through 2005) Donate to DU
 
ProfessorPlum Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Nov-24-04 11:20 AM
Original message
The Chimp and the Honeybees: A Fable
Once more, just for fun . . .


Once there was a community of animals, living in and around the edge of a forest. They got along fairly well together. Sometimes there were small fights, sometimes larger fights, but they had done a fairly good job of working together for many years. One of the things that was sometimes used to help settle disputes was the Beating Stick. It wasn't used often; in fact, it was mostly just used as a threat, but the job of holding the Beating Stick was one of great responsibility.

One night, Old Elephant picked up the Beating Stick and took it from Wise Donkey, who had been holding it and using it judiciously, and gave it to Little Chimp. When Little Chimp saw the Beating Stick, he was delighted. Oh, how happy the Little Chimp was to be holding the Beating Stick! He danced with joy, and swaggered among the other animals, shaking the stick at them and enjoying his newfound importance. "What shall I do with this stick?" he thought to himself. "I can't just hold it!" As he walked along, he spied the large honeybees' hive at the top of a hollow tree. "How I would love to get at all of that honey, that liquid gold," thought he. "The honeybees don't sting much. I'll bet I could just go, sit in the hive, and suck up all of that sweet, raw honey. Wouldn't that be nice? And now that I have the Beating Stick, I'll bet I can make it happen!"

Little Chimp fell asleep under that tree, dozing quietly and dreaming of the honeybees' hive. While his eyes were shut, a small group of wasps flew up, and finding him completely asleep, stung him several times, leaving painful welts on his skin. "Owww!" yelled Little Chimp. "This changes EVERYTHING! I'm mad now!" He stormed off to the other animals, all of whom had also been stung by wasps before. "We're sorry you got stung," they said, "you have to be watchful of wasps, you know."

"The honeybees will pay for this!" yelled Little Chimp. But the other animals, even Old Elephant, reminded him that it was WASPS, not honeybees, who had stung him. "They look about the same to me," harrumphed Little Chimp. "Ok, let's go get the wasps." So Little Chimp and a bunch of the other animals marched off to the wasps' nest, and Little Chimp started beating the nest with the Beating Stick. The wasps flew out of their house, stung the Chimp and a few other animals a few times, then flew off to wait. "Ok," said Little Chimp. "Let's go get those honeybees!" As he turned away, with the other animals in confusion, the wasps patiently returned and began rebuilding their nest.

"Little Chimp," said the owl, "those honeybees didn't have anything to do with stinging you."

"They were in on it," said Little Chimp. "They were out to get me, too. And I'm starting to think YOU are out to get me, Owl." Little Chimp eyed Owl suspiciously. "They are a threat! Those honeybees threaten our entire community!"

The animals displayed nervous smiles to Little Chimp, while sharing nervous glances between themselves. They knew that the honeybees, with their small stings, we're not a threat. Plus, they had worked to keep the honeybees' hive small and manageable, despite the queen bee's efforts. "Come on!" shouted Little Chimp, "Who's with me?"

Many of the animals drew back. "Uh, beating the honeybees' hive is a dumb plan," they said. "Cowards!!!" screamed Little Chimp, baring his teeth and waving the Beating Stick around his head. "I have the Beating Stick! Who is to tell ME what is and isn't dumb?"

He ran to the honey tree, climbed to the top, and with a few scared and reluctant followers, began beating the hive. Some of his helpers used smoke to keep the bees docile. Little Chimp found the Queen Bee, and plucked her out of the hive. "I win!" he shouted. "All you honeybees are now free from the Queen. You can thank me any time now." As Little Chimp's helpers took a closer look at the hive, they realized the bees were never a threat to them. But they realized now that the Queen was gone, other creatures, hornets, yellow jackets, wasps, scorpions, vipers, were starting to infiltrate the hive. "I'm the new ruler here," declared Little Chimp, plopping himself down in the center of the hive and stuffing a large dollop of sweet, crude honey down his throat. "You bees get back to work."

The honeybees realized that as horrible as the old Queen was, she had at least kept the hive orderly and provided them with what comforts they had. They also realized that Little Chimp had not the first clue about running a honeybee nest. They were getting angry, and even the smoke wasn't keeping them down. They began to sting Little Chimp and his helpers harder and harder.

But what did Little Chimp care? He had the golden honey. It was all his. He licked and gulped it down greedily. "I'm starting to think this was all about the honey," said Owl to Donkey. "Shut up!" yelled Little Chimp, who had overheard them, "How dare you suggest that? This was about bringing a better way of life to the honeybees, and about teaching our enemies a lesson!" He was being stung frequently now, by bees, wasps, hornets, and was starting to get a little woozy and nauseous from the honey and the poison in his system. He swung the Beating Stick around carelessly, breaking off pieces of it on the tree.

As he dozed back off to sleep, with a big smile on his face, and his belly full of dead honeybees and honey, the poisons of the attacking animals in his veins, he dreamed happy dreams. "I took the Beating Stick, and I did just what I wanted to do," he thought. "I am the greatest leader of all time."

Moral: Mission Accomplished.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
signmike Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Nov-24-04 11:34 AM
Response to Original message
1. More, more!
This is wonderful, Prof -- have you got any more like this one?
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
ProfessorPlum Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Nov-24-04 03:51 PM
Response to Reply #1
2. Not exactly . . .
but I have archived a bunch of stuff at http://mywebpages.comcast.net/michael_bower/watch/index.html

Thanks for the feedback!
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
BiggJawn Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Nov-24-04 04:07 PM
Response to Original message
3. This would make a good Flash animation!
But I'm not a Flash-er...
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
DU AdBot (1000+ posts) Click to send private message to this author Click to view 
this author's profile Click to add 
this author to your buddy list Click to add 
this author to your Ignore list Wed Apr 24th 2024, 01:39 PM
Response to Original message
Advertisements [?]
 Top

Home » Discuss » Archives » General Discussion (Through 2005) Donate to DU

Powered by DCForum+ Version 1.1 Copyright 1997-2002 DCScripts.com
Software has been extensively modified by the DU administrators


Important Notices: By participating on this discussion board, visitors agree to abide by the rules outlined on our Rules page. Messages posted on the Democratic Underground Discussion Forums are the opinions of the individuals who post them, and do not necessarily represent the opinions of Democratic Underground, LLC.

Home  |  Discussion Forums  |  Journals |  Store  |  Donate

About DU  |  Contact Us  |  Privacy Policy

Got a message for Democratic Underground? Click here to send us a message.

© 2001 - 2011 Democratic Underground, LLC