by Chris Jones

While on a trek to the playground with my 4-year-old daughter, we came across a colony of ants industriously working to move some crumbs they’d found along the sidewalk. As she jetted off to play, I stooped down to watch the ants work. Like clockwork, they moved with urgency, focus and with a collective sense of purpose. It was about that time a familiar proverb popped into my head:

Go to the ant, O sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise. Without having any chief, officer, or ruler, she prepares her bread in summer and gathers her food in harvest

Ants know the value of preparation. They understand that when the weather changes for the worst, it will be too late to do in winter what should have been done in summer. Remember Aesop’s fable, “The Ant and the Grasshopper?” As you know, the ants gathered and stored provisions in anticipation of a harsh and cold winter. The grasshopper on the other hand frolicked around playing and enjoying music thinking nothing of the future. He wanted to hear nothing of unpleasant possibilities, but only wanted to enjoy the freedom of today. To his chagrin, winter hit cold and it hard and he had no food (and in the original fable, he also received no sympathy from the ants!).

I share this with you because while we’re enjoying Phase III, it seems inevitable that we could revisit Phase II. For us as parents, that means virtual learning with kids at home while we work from across the house. It means the grocery bill is still a little higher than we like. And it may mean no community Halloween and a one-off year of no extended family during the holidays.

While optimism is important, there is wisdom in caution as well. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. With cold and flu season nipping at our heels—and it being the first in the COVID-19 era—we would be wise to consider the needs of and play it smart. Our beliefs about COVID-19 don’t matter. Our proactive response does.

I don’t know what winter may bring. For all I or anyone else knows, we may open completely. All I’m suggesting is we take a lesson from a creature that’s .75 millimeters in length, but who knows the value of readiness and sustainability.