The Cockroach and the Honeybee

The honeybee; the maid of flowers: Selflessly she toils for hours, filling up her pollen stores--- never grumbling at her chores. Sips of nectar keep her strong as she labors all day long, pollinating field and arbor, and making honey in her larder. Humble as her kind may be, their loss would be a tragedy. The earth would shed a mournful tear, were honeybees to disappear. The cockroach is a great success, a paragon of hardiness. It serves no queen and tends no hive; its sole concern is to survive. And this it does---to our chagrin: Wherever we home, it settles in--- to feed and breed at our expense, exploiting without recompense. A champion at adaptation, it garners no appreciation: Were cockroaches eradicated, their absence would be celebrated. Two species doing what they do best: The one a friend, the other a pest; one a blessing, one a blight: Worker by day or scourge by night. According to its occupation, each kind has earned its reputation. Consider, now, society: Are you a cockroach, or a bee?