What Gives Me Hope

What gives me hope? Ants give me hope. Bees, too. Ants and bees and schools of fish give me hope. Oh, flocks of birds give me hope. Ants, bees, fish, birds all of them give me hope. Why?
It is called swarm intelligence. If you don't know what that is, join the club, nobody knows. It can easily be observed, in action. You ever seen a school of fish, like on TV, how they all turn at the same time? Flocks of birds do that too. Now, just in case you think that there is some guy hollering "Right turn, hut", like a marine drill sarge(ant), think again. An ant colony is made up of individual ants that by themselves are about as smart as your average sock. They don't have leaders or supervisors. It is every ant doing antstuff, yet when there is a problem, they all seem to know, and respond very quickly to the problem. This is a real mystery to ant scientists, how they just know what to do, and do it so damn quick. All social animals have this "swarm intelligence". It is the "sum of the parts, greater than the whole" enigma.
Humans are social animals. Granted we are smarter than the average sock, some of us reach heights of smartness on par with, say, adjustable caps. Or Garden Party Hats with flowers and fruits, for the ladies, trying to illustrate, I am. But the ant analogy is apropo, none the less. (Uhh, I never used "apropo" before, this is going to be a good day.) I am hitting the heights of penning today, boy howdee. Gee, wonder if I spelled that right. Sure would be nice if these computers came with a gadget to tell you if you misspelled something. Well, maybe someday.
I better hurry, I can tell I need to build character, so it is nearly time to get a real bad cup of coffee. Oh, yeah, I know what you are thinking, my dear reader. You are thinking, how is he going to tie this into that damn "not-doing" crap? Aren't you? Yes you are, my prescient ones, I caught you at it! Well, good on you, I am proud to have you here with me, in this virtual forum and to have the chance to expound on the various manifestations of the sublime art. It is always comforting to have fellow seekers on the path. Given enough flashlights, we can light-up this dark place like a Rolling Stones concert. Alas, I must go, as I sense an imminent crash of character, unless I take remedial action. Ta-ta.

Oh, one thing more: I call these "single leaves". Here is one:

The bonfire fueled by the laughter of a circle of friends, that makes me smile.