The Noble Ant
>I witnessed an amazing sight a few days ago while cleaning up my back yard. I saw an ant carrying off another ant. The second ant was dead.
As I watched what seemed to me a physically daunting task (afterall, the ant was carrying something it’s own size!) I was struck by the beauty of it all as I perceived it. Here was a life form exhibiting some version of compassion for a member of it’s species. It was obviously headed back to the ant colony to provide the equivalent of a burial, or simply to return a fellow member of the group to it’s fold.
When I shared my experience with my husband, he replied, “Oh, it was just taking it back to eat it. I’ve seen that on the Discovery Channel.”
Talk about a punch in the solar plexus! In one fell swoop of a sentence my compassion turned to disgust. But did it need to?
Fast forward to yesterday when I was engaged in a conversation with a bright, philosophical man who sees my perpetual positive attitude as, while noble, somewhat naive. He believes that evil exists and simply not choosing to think about it or “give it energy” is dangerous.
He made some good points and got me thinking. Temporarily, he even got me doubting.
Then I took a deep breath, gathered myself back unto myself, and was able to see the lesson that mystics have known for ages and quantum physics has just recently been able to prove: The presence of the observer changes that which is being observed. Simply putting our consciousness on matter changes the behavior of matter.
Now, back to the ant, my husband and my conversational exchange of yesterday.
In my world, I placed my consciousness on the ant tending to it’s fallen comrade. And so, that is the effect of my consciousness on what occurs. In my husband’s world, the ant is on his way to make a meal of his fallen comrade. And so, that is the effect of his consciousness on what occurs. In the world of the man who believes that how you think about evil will not effect or change evil…that is where he places his consciousness and so that is what he creates with it.
I am not judging any of us or where we choose to place our consciousness. I do, however, believe that we are each living in a reality created by our thoughts.
I prefer to think (and believe with certainty) that the ant was caring for the body of it’s comrade.
In my reality, my thought and the ant’s action are inextricably tied to one another and in the end, both deeply matter.