When you reconsider old clichés, trying to imagine how they might apply in modern society, you can find that, like all literature (the arts), there's much more than initially meets the eye.
Sample:
"The Boy Who Cried Wolf"
Told to me, as a story, when I was a child and something I've heard repeated (clichéd) as a phrase, "Like the 'Boy Who Cried Wolf' ", as some definitive explanation.
At the time I also understood there were morals (lessons) within stories and asked, "What was the 'moral' of the story?", when I heard this one.
Mum said, "Well, the boy shouldn't have told lies, that's what got him into trouble"
"What if he wasn't lying?"
"He was,"
"How do you know?"
"Because there were no wolves, he lied about it"
"Why would he just say it though, if he knew that would get him into trouble?"
"Maybe he thought it would be funny, I don't know Barbara".
That story puzzled me because it wasn't as simple as it seemed.
Wolves (baying at our doors?) may not be the problem today that they were in our history, but we don't expect children to warn us, or blame them for making mistakes and possibly wasting our time, do we?
I tried to imagine myself as the boy - to figure out what circumstances could combine together - to make it seem a good idea to tell everyone in my village that there were wolves about.
I considered how I would feel, especially when it turned out that there weren't any wolves to be seen.
How the villagers might react to me, how that might influence repeating this again.
I thought about what it might be like as a child, sitting in the dark maybe, on a hillside perhaps all alone.
Would I be pleased or scared if wolves started emerging from the woods nearby?
Why would I decide (if there were no wolves there) to wake everyone up and tell them there were?
What's good about that?
What makes it fun?
What's the reward?
There must be one?
It didn't make any sense to me.
If Logic is Maths, this sum thing didn't add up.
What has this got to do with Bees?
Well, when I was watching a documentary about Bees, they explained during the film why the bees danced with such intricate steps. This fascinated me because I also understood what it implied (I knew about Ariadne's dance and the map). So in effect, apparently irrelevant or random occurrences could have significant value underpinning or shared (duo) purpose.
