I’ve found a little metaphor in Termites and Penguins.
Termites are like good people, and good civilization.
They have ordered societies,
They mate for life,
They rear their young,
They produce impressive feats,
They clean up the excess
And they make use of what people think are useless.
Most people look at them
And say, “They’re a worthless
“And destructive insect.”
Because they eat floorboards and stuff…
It’s not a perfect metaphor, people.
But even in that, without them
The forest wouldn’t decompose its foliage
For the next batch of trees to put forth their saplings.
They, all day, work and are content.
They have strong communities.
Penguins are like bad people.
They kill one another,
They eat one another,
They will rape one another
They are homosexual,
They will have sex with the dead.
They live in a barren land.
Are good for really nothing,
Except to be eaten by walruses.
They don’t build.
They just kind of stand there all day
Jumping into the water
Consuming huge amounts of resources;
They are violent,
Tempermental,
Will kill their young,
Will steal one another’s babies,
And everyone loves them
Because they don’t know the half of what happens
In penguin civilization.
But, unlike penguins
Because the metaphor is not perfect,
They don’t do anything truly wrong.
They just kind of sit and do what they’re supposed to do
Because they are good,
And they are the time and season for it.
B. K. Neifert 