In the fields and forests of leadership

The Fall Armyworm, as the name would indicate, is a wormy pest that gorges on over 80 different plants, but is especially fond of cereal crops. A type of caterpillar, it voraciously consumes great quantities of plant matter and when the plants grow scarce, cannibalises smaller larvae. Then, damage done, it eventually hides itself underground before developing into a moth, flying away to breed and lay upwards to 2000 eggs...and the cycle repeats itself. Though native to the Americas, it has spread around the world and last year was reportedly on its way to our own British Isles, prompting warnings of a global food crisis and the catastrophic reversal in efforts to end world hunger and poverty.

The Large Pine Weevil is a type of beetle, that in its adult form is considered the most harmful insect pest to U.K. forests. Thousands of adult weevils emerge from the stumps of felled conifers, resulting in 150,000 weevils per 2.47 acres feeding on the living bark of replacement trees. As they chomp away, the trees are often catastrophically damaged resulting in losses of around £5,000,000 across the country and causing significant delays to the reestablishment of new forest crops.

Some who would be leaders are like Fall Armyworms: soft, spineless, flexible, twisting and turning, able and even eager to bend over backwards, so long as they are fed and no damage is done to themselves. They survive and even thrive, but the crops they have dined on do not and vast numbers of people are affected.

Some who would be leaders are like Large Pine Weevils: hard, hunchbacked, stiff, inflexible, gnawing away to the demise of whole forests, harming the health of mature trees, killing new trees, and hindering the growth and progress of the forest.

Leaders, do not be like the worms or the weevils. Be like the workers who faithfully seek to protect their fields and their forests from the destructive impact of both.