It so happened that I was sat in the sun with a book,and just as I was about to nod off, a little voice called out:
"Excuse me, what is this for?"
A small ant had crawled across the page of my book, and was now sat staring up at me. "What?" I said. "Excuse me," the ant said, "what is this for?"
"What is what for?" I said. "This great black and white expanse I'm standing on now," it tapped the book with a little black leg. "Look," I said, "you wouldn't understand even if I explained it to you." "That might be so," the ant said, "but though I am very small, I am also very curious, and I don't want to turn to dust having known nothing at all.
So, if you would, please – what is this for?" He stood up on his two back legs, eagerly awaiting my answer, and his antennae stood to attention most respectfully. I said:
It's like this: you're standing on a page. Pages are made from trees, we put lots of them together and call it a book."
"What is a book for, then?" the ant said. "Well, it stores thoughts," I said. "That way, we can transmit them to other people very far away."
"How?" the ant said. "Now, look, this isn't the time or place," I said, a little too firmly.
The ant bowed his tiny head, and his antennae wilted. I said softly: "Look, you see those little black squiggles –excuse me; to you, very big black squiggles about you on the page?"
The ant nodded. "Those are words and numbers." "They don't look like words and numbers," the ant said. "They represent them," I said.
"Hmm," the ant said and thought about this a while. I said: "Do you understand?"
The ant said: "Not really. You were right. It's beyond me. But though I'll never be as clever as you animals, I'm at least a little cleverer than I was a moment ago. So thank you for that."
"You're welcome", I said. "Well, good luck on being a thing in the world," the ant said.
"Good luck to you, too," I said. The little ant made off on his way and disappeared into the grass.
I read to the end of my page, but could not forget the little ant. Eventually, I looked up from the book – to the trees, to the mountain, to the sky. The moon was climbing up for evening, birds were migrating in the distance.
I called out: "Excuse me, what is this for?" "What?" came a booming voice above. "This great green and blue sphere I'm standing on now," I patted the ground with my foot, "What is all this for?" "Look," the voice said, "you wouldn't understand even if I explained it to you." "That might be so," I shouted, "but though I am very small, I am also very curious, and I don't want to turn to dust having known nothing at all. So, if you would, please – what is all this for?"
And the voice said:
*Sigh*
"It's like this..."
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