The CEO and the Ant Farm

The title of this post sounds like a parable, doesn't it? Or maybe a fable, along the lines of Aesop's The Fox and The Grapes. Well, this tale isn't a parable and it isn't a fable, but it is most certainly about a metaphor. A huge, unsubtle, in-your-face metaphor that makes me simultaneously laugh and shake my head in mild exasperation. Unlike the Fox and The Grapes fable, the moral of which is "It is easy to despise what you can not get," the moral of the story of the CEO and The Ant Farm is simply, "What the fuck?"

Even more simply, the Chief Executive Officer of my company bought an ant farm, this ant farm:

It sits in his office right now. Truth be told, I don't know the C.E.O. guy in question, except for the occassional hello or head nod when leaving or on my way to the office kitchen for a cup of coffee. The longest conversation we ever had lasted about two minutes and was about old soft drinks that you don't see anymore, like Shasta. There's nothing wrong with liking ants, but I wonder if the symbolism of this ant farm purchase escapes the C.E.O. This is what I see when I look at the Ant Farm in the C.E.O.'s office:

Where is the C.E.O. in this annotated picture? Why, outside of the ant farm, running things of course. I just hope he gives the ants enough food and water, and I also hope that there is no need to thin the herd, so to speak.