Overwhelming

It was probably a boy thing.  Although it happened decades ago, I still feel bad about it.  My feeling bad would not have been any consolation to the ants involved.  Probably the fact that it taught me a valuable lesson would have been meaningless to them to.  But – they did not die in vain!
Where we lived in Townsville we had green ants in a tree.  It was their home.  There were heaps of them.  Around the back we had red ants.  Although they lived in holes in the ground it was where they lived.
Me being me, I wanted to see what would happen if there was a confrontation.  So I gathered up a pile of the red ants and took them to the green ants tree and let them loose.
What happened was no doubt inevitable.  The green ants were defending their home.  There were lots of them.  There were only a few red ants in comparison.  They were far from home and the green ants were not only fighting, they were defending their homes.  They could have thought of their wife and family.  Actually they probably did not.  I just threw that in.
The lesson I learned from it had to do with the fact that the red ants were overwhelmed.  It did not matter they were brave and fought hard they were never going to win.  Sheer numbers meant that.
What I have gotten from it is while a victory just is still a victory, it is better to win overwhelmingly.  In table tennis if I win 18-16 it is still a win (it could happen in an alternate universe).  It is much better to win 11-1 though.
Just as an aside something I have learned more recently is that it is not over until it is over.  Recently in table tennis I lost the first game 11-1.  I came back and won the match 3-1.  By the first games results, I looked like a lost cause.  Only when it was over was it shown the first game for me was a glitch (I worked out a strategy and it proved to be decisive).
Back to the ants.  The red ants did not stand a chance.  They were overwhelmed.
Although it is not always possible, in life I prefer to win overwhelmingly.   I am not referring to overwhelming another person (unless it is in table tennis) but things I face every day.  Some things are like embedded, and are hard to deal with, while others can seem easy peasy.   When stuff is hard, I find it really valuable to learn from someone who has “been there, done that” (it really does not matter to me if they have bought the tee shirt.  The tee shirt does not teach me.  The being there doing that does.)
Just as another aside, I felt like buying a tee shirt when we first introduced EFTPOS where we worked.  We introduced it and then dealt with it.  Boy was there a lot of data.  We spent hours making sense of it in our situation.  When it was over, I thought of getting a tee shirt saying “I survived EFTPOS.”  Anyway, we didn’t, and we moved on.
If I have the resources, it is better I win in a short sharp way, then to have it protracted.  Win overwhelmingly.  The ants taught me that, and although they did not die in vain, that is easy for me to say.  Works for me anyway.