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“What you lose in strength, you gain in clear-sightedness. The trick is to reach the age of wisdom while you’re still strong enough to do things.”
‘God blesses the man of good deeds, and men bless the man of many sheep!’
“You don’t believe me?” “The whole story is improbable!” Sidi gathered his courage. “What’s even more improbable is this lightning bolt that’s struck me two days in a row in the same spot.” She blushed, lowered her head, then looked up and confessed.
By letting them confront the hornets, he had offered them the chance to distinguish themselves on the field of honor without endangering the colony’s survival, and in the process given himself the chance to note with his own eyes the nature and actions of these barbarian insects.
Hearing his own words, the image of his people, the Nawis, decked out in their new getups, leaped into his mind and he had a realization. This hornet wasn’t the product of natural evolution; it was a sign of nature, derailed.
Once again, man, in search of land, gave the plague to his fellow man in the folds of his offerings.
When he was still of sound mind, he made school obligatory for all the children in the country. Instead of a saint to worship, he offered them the chance to take their fate into their own hands.
“However,” she continued, “you shouldn’t idealize Japanese society either. It’s secretive and hides many peculiarities that are difficult for foreigners to grasp.”
Sidi could hear them from where he was standing. But what God were they worshipping?
In his hands, animals driven by instinct, and across from him, humans driven by free will. Among these creatures mired in clay, who were the true monsters?
