Negotiating Puddles

There is a story told by Arnold Lobel of a grasshopper and a mosquito. It involved negotiating a puddle. The grasshopper could have easily stepped over the puddle. The mosquito, however, ran a ferry service transporting people across it. The mosquito declared: “Rules are rules – you must ride in my boat across this puddle.” Of course his boat is too small. But “rules are rules,” said the persistent insect. Eventually the grasshopper picks up the mosquito and his boat and gently steps over the puddle and deposits them on the other side. “Thank you for the ride” said the grasshopper. “You’re welcome,” rejoined the mosquito.

The mosquito and his rules provide the parable with humour. I have spent most of my life stepping around puddles and breaking someone’s rules. ‘Rules are made for people, not people for rules,’ say I. Yet some people of course like rules and find my brand of anarchy difficult. We both need patience.

As an aside it was on my first outing with the media that I was labeled an “anarchist”. Bishop Norman of Wellington was rather steamed up about my arrest at Waitangi in 1983. I had broken the law – hence I was an anarchist.

The mosquito parable is about differences and how to live with them. The mosquito sees the puddle as a lake and his role in life as helping people across it. The grasshopper sees the lake as a puddle that can easily be crossed over. When you are the mosquito you get annoyed with people who think they are too big to get into your boat like anyone else. When you are the grasshopper you just want to bypass the little pest and leave him to his small world.

Yet, in the parable, as I’ve seen in parish life many times, there is grace present. The grasshopper doesn’t bypass the tiny mite. She thinks into the world of the mosquito. She hears his concerns, plays along, and lifts the mosquito and his boat into a solution. Both take leave of each other feeling good. It takes all sorts to make a world. We need to continually find ways to tactfully negotiate past problems, leaving the puddle-minded with their dignity intact..

One could speculate that the mosquito felt pleased that the big ‘hopper learnt some humility. Likewise the grasshopper could have felt pleased that the mosy realized there was more than one way to cross a puddle. We all hope that someone will recognize the principles by which we try to live, and those principles will be influential.

I’m discussing this over a beer with my friend down the road and, as is his custom, he disagrees with me. My interpretation of the story is ‘crap’. He says the mosquitoes of this world will stay puddle-orientated. The grasshoppers are moving on.

I disagree. I’m an idealist. I believe in a planet where difference lives with difference and tries to cope with its difficulty.

I was privileged the other day to meet a ‘mosquito’. He had worked for many years as an administrative assistant in a large corporation. He spoke to me of a ‘grasshopper’ called Jack who held a senior post in that corporation. What he said of him was short, to the point, and deeply moving: “Jack made me believe that I could do anything.” I can think of no finer tribute.