Pete Seeger & Carl Sandberg & a Shovel
My favorite bug story
2 maggots are riding on the handle of a shovel.
1 falls off into a gutter, and the other falls into a dead cat.
The maggot that fell into the gutter crawls for what seems like half his lifetime, starving and dying of thirst.
He finally crawls up to the top of the curb, and looks over to see his pal— sleek and fat from feasting on the dead cat.
The maggot cries out, "Oh friend, how has it come to pass that I am starving and dying of thirst, while you are so sleek and fat?”
The other maggot lifts his head.
“Brains and personality, brother— brains and personality.”
-- as told & illustrated by Jon Bailiff, from a memory of Pete Seeger’s, who says he stole it from Carl Sandberg.
The luck of gravity = the luck of birth
Like many people I actually saw Pete Seeger tell this story live on stage - if I recall correctly it was at a demonstration at Seabrook, New Hampshire where we were protesting the building of a nuclear power plant there, circa 1978.