It has already been mentioned that Caterpillars are very practical creatures, and in fact they have no form of religion whatsoever. Caterpillars, who usually take a very believe-it-when-I-see-it attitude to most things, also apply this to their philosophy, and for the caterpillars to accept any figure as their god there would have to be some pretty unbelievable miracles. Aphids, however, are slightly more spiritual creatures, and, whilst they do not have an actual god, they believe in what they call the Balance. This was their theory that life was made up of extremes, good deeds, bad deeds, mercy, tyranny, and so on, but that sooner or later in the scheme of it all, things would even themselves out. This was similar to karma, but not quite as structured. With karma, one would get paid back for one's bad deeds, in the terms of the balance, there are times in one's life when fortune will smile, and times when one's luck will be bad. There is, Aphids have always maintained, a pattern to this, but it is a complex pattern, which will eventually even itself out, to leave each moment of good luck balanced, sooner or later, by a moment of bad luck. It was believed that for an aphid to find eternal contentment, he had to die knowing that his deeds were balanced, and that every bad deed he had done was balanced with a good one. The only people who could declare an individual to be balanced in this way were the Judges of the balance, who adopted a similar role to priests. An aphid was as afraid of dying in imbalance as a Catholic was of dying without having his or her sins absolved.
Copyright 1999 Ian Rennie, for Remiel Productions.