2/28/07

Parable of the Mouse

Stolen from QueensCrap



A mouse looked through the crack in the wall to see the farmer and his wife open a package.



"What food might this contain?" The mouse wondered - He was devastated to discover it was a mousetrap.



Retreating to the farmyard, the mouse proclaimed the warning.



"There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!"



The
chicken clucked and scratched, raised her head and said, "Mr. Mouse, I
can tell this is a grave concern to you but it is of no consequence to
me. I cannot be bothered by it."



The mouse turned to the pig and told him, "There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!"



The
pig sympathized, but said, "I am so very sorry, Mr. Mouse, but there is
nothing I can do about it but pray. Be assured you are in my prayers."



The mouse turned to the cow and said, "There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!"



The cow said, "Wow, Mr. Mouse. I'm sorry for you, but it's no skin off my nose."



So, the mouse returned to the house, head down and dejected, to face the farmer's mousetrap -- alone.



That very night a sound was heard throughout the house -- like the sound of a mousetrap catching its prey.



The
farmer's wife rushed to see what was caught. In the darkness, she did
not see it was a venomous snake whose tail the trap had caught. The
snake bit the farmer's wife.



The farmer rushed her to the hospital and she returned home with a fever.



Everyone
knows you treat a fever with fresh chicken soup, so the farmer took his
hatchet to the farmyard for the soup's main ingredient. But his wife's
sickness continued, so friends and neighbors came to sit with her
around the clock.



To feed them, the farmer butchered the pig. The farmer's wife did not get well; she died.



So many people came for her funeral, the farmer had the cow slaughtered to provide enough meat for all of them.



The mouse looked upon it all from his crack in the wall with great sadness.



So,
the next time you hear that someone else’s neighborhood is facing a
problem and think it doesn't concern you, remember -- when one
community is threatened, all are at risk.



____________________________________________



And a side note from me personally: Remember how the fish got caught? He opened his big mouth...

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