The Hornet's Nest

Imagine walking through the forest one day and discovering an apparently unguarded or abandoned bee’s nest hanging within easy reach. Thinking a snack of rich honey can be had for little or no effort, you approach the nest. Suddenly your plan is interrupted by an angry buzzing. You look around you and discover a hornet buzzing about your feet. Following your first instinct you attempt to stomp on the hornet, and after several misses you successfully squash the pesky bugger. However, without you noticing, your stomping has shaken the ground and you now have several angry hornets buzzing about your feet. You immediately launch into an Indian war dance, hooting and stomping around, until you feel the sharp pain of a sting. This angers you further so you increase your efforts to exact revenge upon the culprit and his cohorts by flailing madly in all directions. You attempt to obliterate the source of these angry hornets by closing the hole from which they came. However, by now you are not fighting just one or several angry hornets, but the entire nest has erupted around you and you are getting stung repeatedly. Too late you realize that although you easily stomped the first soldier who attempted to defend his nest, and the several that followed, they are striking back. Further, you realize they are coming from more than one hole in the ground, and they appear to be everywhere.

The moral of the story is simple. Although our daydreamer was infinitely superior in size and weaponry, and although he was able to inflict serious damage to the pesky tribe, er nest, his victory was never accomplished, and in the meantime, he incurred some serious damage. The longer he stays the more damage he suffers until he leaves with his tail between his legs.

Mission accomplished.