Colin Phan - Week #13: Ants and Chickens
Hear me out. You know when it’s like 3 AM, but you’re still wide awake for no reason? Then suddenly your brain just goes crazy and you start thinking about the most random things. I would never care or think about this during the day, but at 3 AM, they’re the most important things ever.
Here's some food for thought if you’re reading this late at night (or save this until it's late so you can think about it).
I just thought of this while watching an ant walk back and forth on my table in 3rd period. I wonder what goes on in the small minds of ants. Are they just hardwired to work and work and work all the time or do they ever have free time? I think there must’ve been an ant who felt that life was getting boring and thought that maybe he needed a break from walking in a straight line.
I was rereading my blog and started wondering if maybe, just maybe, the ants are actually us. What if, while we’re busy looking at them stuck in their routines, they’re looking at us the same way? We are also trapped in our own daily systems, working endlessly and repeating the same cycle every day. Ants or humans, we’re all just part of an infinite loop. Is this the life we actually want, or are we just repeating the same motions over and over, one step at a time on a never-ending treadmill leading us to the same place? Maybe the ants are a reminder that if we don’t break free from this cycle, we may lose sight of what it means to actually live, laugh, and love rather than just exist.
How many chickens would it take to overtake a small town?
This one pops up sometimes when I’m extra sleepy or think of random questions to train my creativity skills. But this is serious. If we’re talking about an army of chickens, how many would it take to take over a mini-town? Would they march in, make a bunch of noises, and demand to be in charge? I know the logistics don’t make any sense but at 3 AM it’s the most important issue in the world. Let me know what you think in the comments!
3 AM thoughts are quite interesting. They don’t really make sense, yet they stick with you long after you’ve gone to bed. Next time when you’re thinking about the universe or a chicken invasion, remember that you’re not alone. We’ve all been there. Maybe. Or just me.
Hi Colin,
ReplyDeleteOnce again, I found the title extremely interesting because I wanted to figure out how ants and chickens relate to memory. I also like how you start off with “Hear me out” to capture the audience’s attention and let us know that you have an interesting (so to speak) take on something which intrigued me even more. I also like how you separated the two questions into separate sections to keep them apart from each other and develop a better blog flow for your audience to read. I also like the addition of the picture and the closing paragraph because though I am sound asleep at 3 AM, I do have “shower thoughts” where these kinds of crazy scenarios come to life in my imagination. I also like how you take a philosophical approach to make the audience question what the true purpose of life is if we are all stuck in an infinite loop. It keeps them wondering and maybe that same question will resurface when they can’t sleep tonight. Overall, I loved reading your blog.
-Krish
Hi Colin! I just finished reading your blog, and you seem like a very creative person! These questions were pretty new to me because honestly my mind is like empty 24/7 so I don’t get to think of these fun questions very often but so thank you for giving me this opportunity to ponder on such interesting, silly questions!
ReplyDeleteThere are ants in my 3rd period as well, and now that you’ve mentioned, do they even have consciousness or feelings? It seems almost as if they are perpetually stuck on a loop to just keep doing ant tasks until they die. It was thought-provoking to see how you related that to our monotonous human lives, repeating the same habits over and over again, unable to break free from the cycle. Your chicken invasion question made me giggle out loud and hmmm I think it would take around 8,490 chickens to invade a small town! Thank you for this fun blog!
Sorry Colin, I tried to save these topics to think about after reading Beloved at 2 am, but I just fell asleep. Honestly, I feel like I’ve had these weird thoughts in the past, but I feel like my mind is just way too occupied right now to even have space for these thoughts—there’s really no time for boredom. Even in the shower, I’m busy singing and stuff. In my bed, I’m busy falling asleep (I probably have 30 seconds for thinking before I black out). I don’t know if that’s just me, or…
ReplyDeleteMaybe thinking of random questions to train my creativity skills is something that I need. Maybe I have NO creativity because I don’t have time to think about random questions. How insightful!
Now in response to your first question, I think that ants get bored. Or maybe they are just so loyal to their leader and their community that they find meaning in walking in lines over and over again. Or maybe they just don’t have the mental capacity for any of that thinking. Have you seen that circle that ants get stuck in? Following each other in circles and circles for the rest of their lives until they all die? Maybe they are just built to follow. How depressing.
If I were a chicken invading a human town, I think I’d just peck at their calves over and over again. You know that form of torture where water is just dropped over and over and over again until it becomes unbearable? Maybe I can do that with my chicken beak? Or maybe I can just get my friends (10 chickens maybe) and just poop all over a human house. I mean if ten chickens came into my house right now and pooped all over the place, I’d probably just leave.
Anyways, thanks for sharing! I’m excited to become a chicken in my next lifetime and invade your house!