One of the pleasures of summer is hanging my towel on the line every morning after I shower.
I can compare the actual weather with the forecast on my phone and admire my little garden.
This year, however, I’ve discovered that ants are using my clothes line as a highway from the garage to the maple tree. Dozens of ants coming and going, over and around the clothes pins. Why, I wonder, and even more, how? The old plastic clothes line is very narrow and very slippery. The ants don’t care.
And, when I bring my towel in, no matter how much I shake it, a few ants accompany me. I remove them as gently as I can and urge them to find another route. They are unpersuaded.
It’s a daily reminded of how much I don’t know and can’t do. Humbling and mysterious.
I comment on this phenomenon to my husband but he’s not impressed. “If you consider the proportions,” he said, “it’s as if you were walking on a wide log across a stream. Not that difficult.”
“But they do it upside down, too,” I said.
Writer Karen Anderson lives in Traverse City.
