Bus Stop and Bathroom Wall Wanderings

Predawn, yesterday. Watching from my hotel third floor perch before dawn yesterday, people filed into the open-air bus station in Debra Markos on Highway 3 towards Addis Ababa. They seemed like busy ants carrying packages heading for some predetermined destination. Many were on the main road. Some made a perpendicular line through the station gate. Occasionally, two would stop to exchange a greeting or message.

This morning, Ras Amba Hotel bathroom, Addis Ababa, ants marched in squiggly lines on the blue tiled bathroom wall. Their main highway was the corner. Some made a perpendicular line towards the sink. Marching in opposite directions, they would touch each other while passing as if giving a greeting or message. At one point, one ant marching away from the sink touched one marching towards it. Just after the touch, the one going towards the sink did a U-turn. Entomologists tell us ants have limited cognitive capabilities. It’s strictly pheromones. The pheromone force.

??In mankind’s inexorable wanderings, do we operate on a pheromone force? Are we more intelligent than the evolutionary process that created us?