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Diligence

【Laziness】A farmer was sitting on the porch of his house when a stranger came by and asked, ‘How’s things?”

“Tolerable,” came the reply. He continued, “Two weeks ago a tornado came along and knocked down all the trees I would have had to chop down for this winter’s firewood. Then last week lightning struck the brush I had planned to burn to clear the fields for planting.”

The stranger responded, “That’s remarkable, what are you doing now?”

The farmer answered, “Waiting for an earthquake to come along and shake the taters out of the ground.”

【Laziness】According to John Silling, a Purdue University entomologist, the ant is an exemplary worker. “Basically the ant’s entire life, which can range up to seven years, is spent working,” says Silling. “They gather food, bring it back to the nest, and use it for day-to-day meals as well as to store for the winter.”

In addition, the amazing insects can be adept horticulturalists, states the professor. Some species “gather bits of grass or leaves and take them back to their nest. On this organic matter, which is used much like fertilizer, they place tiny mushroom spores and grow them for food.” But ants as dairy-keepers? That’s right. “Some ants get the majority of their food by ‘milking’ aphids or plant lice which are often known as ‘ant cows,’ says the scientist. “The ants sometimes herd the aphids down into the ant nests at night or when it starts to get cool, then when it gets warm again, they herd them back up to the plants.”

【Laziness】Humorist Ogden Nash captured the bitter truth about laziness:

If you don’t want to work

You have to work

To earn enough money

So that you won’t have to work.

【Laziness】F.O. Walsh gave this basis for laziness:

While other men paint,

Or water or weed,

I’m curled up in a chair,

With a good book to read.

While other men shop,

Or shovel, or mow,

I’m having a drink

While watching some show.

I offer to help,

But my wife says, “Forget it,

If you lend a hand,

I know I’ll regret it.”

And therein’s my secret,

I’m very adept

At only one thing,

And that’s being inept.