Be Like The Mighty Honeybee

For a while I've been kicking around a thought that goes something like this: "To be a good Stoic, to be a good person, one must effort to be like a honeybee." I wanted to take a few minutes to flesh that idea out a bit.

Why is a honeybee so good?

A honeybee wakes in the morning and does its honeybee duty. It leaves the hive, pollinates the world, returns with pollen all over its body which it then hands over to whatever process it is in a hive that makes honey (so they can survive the winter). The honeybee does everything it does in order that it might serve the world (through pollination) and take care of its community (by helping its hive to survive). The honeybee is the perfect being; selfless, un-dauntingly committed, and always ready to do what is good and useful.

But the honeybee has an unfair advantage...

The honeybee has absolutely no choice in its behavior, because it lacks the necessary mental faculties to make choices. The honeybee is almost like a robot in this way; it is so good because it can be no other way. 

Human beings are not so lucky... or are they?

Born with the ability to contemplate the future, to ruminate on the past, and to decide their behavior, human beings are, in a way, cursed. When we wake, we wake with no programmed purpose, no robotic drive to help or serve--we simply wake, remain awake for a few hours, and then sleep until next we wake. Everything in-between is a choice, a litany of choices we are free to make no matter their utility or goodness.

But our curse comes with the magic incantation necessary to lift it.

We have the curse of choice, but with that choice we can choose to be like the honeybee. 

In Stoicism we learn that Nature is as divine as divinity can get.

We further learn, as a consequence of this, that human beings, with their ability to choose, are, in a way, apart from the rest of the natural world. However, if we can recognize this, and prioritize the work necessary to choose to become more in-alignment with Nature, we can become more like that which is divine. This requires, of course, the belief that to be more like Nature is, if not divine, then, at least, a very good thing. This belief, whether religious or logical, must be held by any Stoic, for the rest of Stoicism is based on it.

If we believe that Nature is divine, or, alternatively, if you're not open to that word, logical and worth mimicking, then we can formulate an ideal of what it means to be a human being doing its human being duty. What does that ideal and duty look like? 

We wake in the morning and we leave the hive. Once outside, we play a part in the world that benefits the world. While engaged in the work/effort of benefitting the world, we collect that which would benefit our hive (which refers to both our communities and our homes). And, above all, we invest no small amount of effort in ensuring our minds and bodies stay fit for this work.

If you wish to be a stoic, then do what I do and take a few pages from the playbook of the mighty honeybee.