Meg (the pretty one) made an interesting statement...

"I feel like one day there will be a war between the bloggers...Like LiveJournal vs. Blogspot for entire web dominion."

I'm a little battle-weary, so instead of creating an elaborate storyline involving various types of bloggers jockeying for power, I'll just try to re-tell a story that I read a long time ago.

Long, long ago there was great discord among the creatures of Earth. There were no Men yet to claim absolute rule over Nature. Although there were animals of all kinds and variety, two main factions arose to claim the world as their own:

There were the Birds. Every feathered creature that graced the sky swore allegiance to this faction.

And there were the beasts. All the running, leaping, climbing animals banded together in their cause.

Of course there were still the animals that lived in the sea. There was little contention among them because the sea was so vast. In the event of the slightest contention among neighboring sea creatures, one of them would merely have to swim a short distance away to likely never see the other ever again.

There were attempts by both Beast and Bird to recruit the sea creatures to their side, but there were none that could figure out how to go down and speak to them for any length of time without drowning.

At this point in our story, there was to be a great, final battle between the Birds and the Beasts. Each side was scrambling to assemble its troops. As the day drew near, every animal had chosen their side.

Except one.

There was one odd little animal that had up until this point been overlooked. No one had known quite what to make of him. He certainly flew, there was no doubt about that. He had wings that he loved to wrap around himself for warmth.

But he wasn't quite a Bird. Instead of feathers, he had a soft fur. Instead of a beak, he had a nose. And instead of no ears, and no teeth, he did have ears, and he did have teeth.

He kept to himself, mostly. He loved to go to the tallest tree and hang upside down from the tallest branch all day, just stretching his furry wings and basking in the warm sunlight.

His name was Bat.

Both sides were almost evenly matched and were looking for any advantage. Each sent an ambassador to speak to Bat.

The Birds sent Raven, who flew up to the tallest branch of the tallest tree to speak to Bat.

"Brother," Raven called, "I see by your wings that you are a Bird, albeit a strange one. Come and join us in our battle against the Beasts, that you may revel with us when we are victorious!"

Bat had just been having a pleasant dream involving a Lady-Bat that was whispering sweet nothings into his ear. He was greatly annoyed to wake and find it to be only Raven cawing raucously at him.

"Go away, Raven, and leave me in peace!" Bat yawned, "I am no Bird. I am a Beast!"

Raven cawed scornfully at him and flew back to report this news to the rest of the Birds.

Bat just went right back to his dream.

The Beasts sent O-rang-u-tang to enlist Bat to their ranks. O-rang-u-tang climbed all the way up to the tallest branch of the tallest tree, where he found Bat lost in his dreams.

O-rang-u-tang poked at Bat with his finger to wake him.

This time Bat was dreaming of a Lady-Bat scratching him in that special spot just behind his ear.

So this time he was even more annoyed to wake up and find only O-rang-u-tang rudely poking him with his great, dirty finger.

"Brother," O-rang-u-tang said, "I see by your fur and by your teeth that you are a Beast, albeit a strange one. Come and join us in our battle against the Birds, that you may revel with us when we are victorious!"


"Go away, O-rang-u-tang, do not be so absurd!" Bat yawned, "I am no Beast. I am a Bird!"

O-rang-u-tang hooted disdainfully at him and climbed back down to report this news to the Beasts.

Satisfied that it was safe to dream again, Bat went back to sleep.

The next day was to be the day of the battle. At the final moment, a truce was declared between the Birds and the Beasts, with a declaration being made that each group would rule Air and Land, respectively.

Neither Bird nor Beast was very happy about giving up any power, but neither were they truly sad about avoiding risking their lives in battle.

So instead of a battle, each side held a great celebration.

Bat was woken up by all the commotion and quickly figured out what had happened. Always one for festivities, Bat flew to where the Birds were celebrating. "Brothers!" he said merrily.

The Birds eyed him coldly and made a circle of their backs so that he could not join them. Raven took a moment to say, "Begone from here, Beast! Today is our day of truce, but if we find you in our territory on any day that follows we shall make you suffer the consequences of your decision!"

A bit discouraged, Bat flew to where the Beasts where holding their festival. "Brothers?" he called out hopefully.

The Beasts, too, eyed him coldly and made a circle of their backs so that he could not join them. O-rang-u-tang took a moment to say, "Begone from here, Bird! Today is our day of truce, but if we find you on our territory on any day that follows this we shall make you suffer the consequences of your decision!"

Poor Bat flew on and on, frantically searching for a place on the Earth that was neither the domain of the Birds or of the Beasts.

In a far corner of the world, he found a deep cave. He hid himself inside it all day with his wings wrapped round about him, shivering and dreaming of his branch under the sun.

At night, when Bat was certain that everyone was asleep, he finally came out to search for food.

And so it went.

Now, all bats hide from the world by day and dare come out only by night. Such is the price of a life of dreaming and indecision.

Eh, I'm pretty sure the story went something like that. I could only really remember the gist of it. I don't think it was nearly this long.

Oh well, the extra characters and the bit about the sea creatures should, if nothing else, be enough to keep me from getting sued.

Oh, right, the moral. Um, so whose side would I be on? Blogspot or LiveJournal?

Who's asking?

No, if anything, the fact that I got this idea for a post from Meg's LiveJournal should illustrate that we're all just a bunch of crazies trying to express ourself in a crazy world. We take our ideas when we can get 'em. We're a part of this world, this vast community, and everything that happens here, at least in some small way, affects everybody else.

We try to learn. We post on as we do.

When it comes down to it, the problems of a couple of bloggers like us don't amount to a hill of broken HTML tags in this world.

But if I have an idea and I don't write it, I'm gonna regret it. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon, and for the rest of my life.

Now go on, get outta here.

Here's lookin' at you, blog.