Bug-A-Boos

Preface

Every single thing is a part of a larger thing; a grain of sand, part of the beach; a drop of water, part of the lake.  Every person is part of a larger group; you and I are part of our fathers' families. Our father is part of his grandfather's family. And when you join families together, you have neighborhoods, then cities, then states and countries.

Every world is part of a larger world and contains within it many smaller worlds, some so small they can only be seen with a microscope.  The oceans contain many worlds; the world of fish that swim within it, the world of plants that grow on the bottom, and some very tiny, crawling things that live so deep that they have no light unless they make it for themselves.

The great forest also holds many worlds, and this story is about one of them, the world of small crawling and flying things we often call bugs.  The bugs know who they are; they know their own world.  The bugs also know there is something larger than their world.  Just like we know we are part of something larger but are not sure what it is, the bugs know something lies beyond and around their world; but they only understand their piece of it.

Within their own world, the bugs act in many ways just like we do, although they do not know they do. We know that they do because we can look down into their world, even though they cannot look up into ours, at least not so easily.

What we see is that bugs eat and sleep.  They build homes out of dirt and sticks.  Some, like spiders, even glue their homes together.  We see them live side by side or apart; and we see them get into fights one against the other or, at times, a whole gang of one kind of bug will battle against another gang. If you ever see a yellow-jacket and a locust get into a fight, you will not only see a terrific struggle between two very strong bugs but you will hear a loud racket because they chatter and growl at each other.

Bugs who live around people, like the ones we see all of the time, have trouble setting up their communities or even their individual homes, because we are always disturbing them with rakes and spades, sprays and powders, or just by walking around. So, the world of bugs around people is always being upset.

But, the world of bugs in the great forest is hardly ever bothered by people.  Occasionally, it is bothered by large animals, like anteaters who try to eat the ants or bears who may dig the honey from a beehive; but much of the time the bugs in the great forest go about their own business or getting food, building homes and fighting with each other.

A long time ago in the great forest, all the fighting among bugs caused the leaders, called the Big Bugs, to come together to see if they could agree on not fighting anymore or, at least, not so much and not so fiercely. The Big Bugs decided to form a Council of the Big Bugs where they could meet regularly and talk about their problems with each other rather than fighting. In order to have someone in charge of the Council, who would be the one to say, "Let's have a meeting;" and "The meeting will come to order;" the Big Bugs decided to take turns being leader of the Council. This is the way it was for awhile, for many years and many families of bugs; but finally, the Big Bugs decided they needed someone to be a full time leader, not just part time and for a little while at a time.