Travelling the island of Mallorca, I was warned about the dangerous moths, called Pine Processionary. The moths aren’t as dangerous as their caterpillars, which to survive eat almost all the leaves of pine trees and consequently the tree dies as he cannot take advantage of the energy from the light of the Sun.
The purpose of these lines is not to teach you biology, but to point out one really interesting feature these little creatures have. Namely they travel together. With the pheromones they secrete at their bottom they attract the other caterpillar that sticks its head to their bottom and so they form a long line following each other, each one sticking its head into the bottom of the caterpillar in front of it. That is why they are called processionary caterpillars.
This is how they travel long distances, slowly, to get food or to the place where they turn into cocoons and eventually become moths.
As they choose to travel up the trees, one of them sometimes falls down.
Maybe it wasn’t consistent enough in smelling the colleague’s ass. One could say it was expelled from the line for not following the rules.
When it falls down, an interesting thing happens. The caterpillar joins with other caterpillars that for some reason left the line and offers its bottom to be smelled. The caterpillar then takes charge of leading the other ‘dropout’ caterpillars and brings them to the destination.
The lesson I have learned from the behaviour of these caterpillars is that no matter how different you are from those around you, you will always find a company that will think and do the same as you. Maybe it is not you who will actually lead the movement of the new group, but it is highly probable you will feel accepted and become a better you.
ZGAGA 