A female honeybee larva can grow up to be either a queen or a worker depending on what food it's fed. I didn't make that up. Hives are complex social structures with different kinds of workers, such as harvesters, nurses and cleaners. There are no hedge fund bees or celebrity bees. Everyone gets fed, there is no competition, everyone is equal, they know their place, the cleaner wouldn't dream of being a nurse bee.
Unlike us. We feel we need to do it all: (Attention women!) be the queen; lay the eggs; clean; work; cook; breed ;make cupcakes. This is why we end up on xanax and bees don't.
It's that old chestnut. Comparison is what drives us mad. When will I learn I am not you? I don't even have the same shaped nose, why would I need to have what you have? Some people are satisfied with their lot. I haven't met anyone like this but I know they're out there in the country somewhere among the trees growing their own chickens, pulling udders for a living.
For the rest of us there's an infection in the air, there are memes like mental viruses that travel through the atmosphere spreading ideas from mind to mind influencing our thoughts and behaviours. You don't even have to watch the news or listen to gossip. It will permeate into your brain, whether you like it or not. Part of the infection is not just keeping up with your neighbor but leaving that neighbour in the dust seething with resentment. We strive, we strive and we strive some more.
Maybe, we think if we stuff ourselves with enough information it will raise us above the hordes, that the more RAMs we've rammed in our heads the more significant our presence is on earth. We take in all that information at a cost; it exhausts us trying to figure out what we need and what is trivia. We're so clogged up upstairs it's difficult to make sensible decisions; should I worry about cancer or getting the right toothpaste?
Our brains are not computers, they don't need charging, they need to rest and there is no rest. Who has time to rest? It's a dirty word. The only time you can legitimately rest is when you're in the rest room and then you're forgiven, otherwise if you say you're resting, you're fired or seen as old and senile. Every bit of information coming in and out is sucking out your energy, that's why you always forget where you parked your car.
And let me just bring in mental illness. One of the first symptoms of depression is when you can't make any decisions. Choosing which direction to walk is overwhelming, looking at a menu is like going on Mastermind. Eventually your brain gives up, it has no more room, you've scored 'game over' hit your full capacity like an over stuffed hoover bag before it explodes. Then, the agony of people demanding an answer becomes too much to bear and finally you can only decide which window you want to jump out of.
Something has to change - can it change? Can we change?