The Strong Ant

Once upon a time there was an ant who had to carry a boulder. The boulder was sitting atop a treasure that the ant could see, but not reach. Something within the ant yearned for this treasure; he valued it so much. He wanted to lift the boulder. But one single ant cannot life an entire boulder.

So the ant went to his friends, gathered them together, and told them of the treasure he knew was beneath the boulder. He knew that his fellow ants were expert carriers, for he had seen them carrying pebbles and big rocks. Surely, he thought, they would be strong enough to lift the boulder together!

The other ants listened to the first ant tell the story of the treasure beneath the boulder, and they began to get excited at the idea of partaking of the treasure themselves. And so they agreed with the first ant that the boulder should be lifted. Some ants did nothing more than agree, but others volunteered to help lift the boulder themselves, for they knew that a single ant could not lift the boulder alone.

So the first ant and his friends went to the boulder and began to lift. Right away, the first ant noticed that some of his friends were not strong enough to carry even part of the boulder. This was odd, for he had seen them carrying heavy things before, and so he had thought they would be capable of carrying only a part of this very great boulder, but they could not. So they fell away and left the group, and the boulder became a little bit heavier.

Some ants began to wonder why they were lifting the boulder in the first place. After all, they had not seen the treasure themselves. They had only heard about it from the first ant. Maybe this treasure was not worth all this effort. And so they left the group and fell away, and the boulder became a little bit heavier.

Some ants decided they would help the first ant lift the boulder in exchange for his help in aspects of their own lives. This quid pro quo lifting seemed like a good idea to them, until they began to realize that his boulder was much heavier than any of the rocks they had to lift themselves. They didn't think that was fair, and so they left the group and fell away, and the boulder became a little bit heavier.

After a time of trying to move the boulder, some ants found that lifting the boulder was heavy and hard work. Their muscles were straining and their legs becoming tired. They were no longer sure the treasure underneath the boulder would be worth the effort to carry it on to completion, and so they too fell away and left the group, and the boulder became a little bit heavier.

Some ants were overburdened by the heaviness of the boulder now, and so they decided to step back as well, perhaps not realizing that in doing so they were overburdening the ones who were left to an even greater extent. But they left the group and fell away, and the boulder became a little bit heavier.

The ant at the center of the boulder watched his friends break their promises to him over and over and over again. He began to be sad and angry. What's worse, he was still carrying the boulder on top of himself, almost too heavy for him to bear. And yet he had come too far, the treasure was too beautiful, to set it down now. He knew if he set it down, all hope of ever partaking of the treasure beneath the boulder would be lost. And yet, he also knew that the boulder was too heavy for one ant to bear alone. His friends were fleeing fast, and things were about to get harder as rain began to pelt the boulder, making it even heavier.

The ant began to despair. "Why did they promise to lift this boulder with me if they were not going to carry it on to completion?" he wondered aloud. "It would have been better not to promise at all than to break a promise halfway through!"

Then he thought about his friends who had broken their promises. It was clear that some were simply not strong enough to carry the boulder. He could not make them grow stronger. That would be up to them. Some ants did not have their own vision of the treasure. He could not give them that vision. That was something they needed to discover for themselves. Some ants only loved conditionally and needed an exchange for any support and help they gave. He was sad for them because they did not know greater love. That was also something he could not control. The ants who grew weary in lifting the boulder were no more weary than he was. Yet they had chosen to give up, and that was their choice. He could not make their choices for them. Some ants could have been crushed by the weight of the boulder, and though they were in no more danger than he was and a great deal less danger than he was in now, he could not fault them for wanting to set boundaries and save their own skins, though he wished they had been honest with them from the start.

The ant realized that his friends had their own choices to make, just as he did, and he could not judge or fault them for it. This did not make the boulder any less heavy, and he wished that his friends had been able to carry the boulder with him to the completion of removal. But they had not, and now he had to decide how to move it himself.

Fortunately, a few friends remained to help him. They struggled and toiled. They were injured. They nearly died, and they often wanted to. They cussed and screamed and hurt more than any of the faithless ants could have possibly realized. But in the end, they did move the boulder. And as the ant partook of the treasure beneath, he discovered even more than he had bargained for, for one of the treasures he found was the strength to move a whole fricken boulder!

And it will be good.