THE MOUSETRAP

[kentuck]

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. It was 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.

The wife's sickness continued and friends and neighbors came to sit with her. To feed them, the farmer butchered the pig.

The farmer's wife eventually died. So many people came to her funeral, the farmer had the cow slaughtered to provide enough meat for all of them.

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

The next time you hear of someone facing a problem and you think it doesn't concern you, or the next time you think tossing one or more of our democratic ideals (small ‘d') to the side would be the best line of defense, remember: When one of us is threatened, we are all at risk.

[Raine]

1. What a lesson in that story

there's much to learn and remember from that ... Thank You! 👍

[Busterscruggs]

2. I guess

They all should have read animal farm

[Goonch]

3. ;-{)🖖‍🐭

[Throck]

4. Did it occur to anyone the snake would have bit her without the mouse trap?

[tecelote]

5. Probably not. Snakes don't like to bite people.

They do when trapped though.

The snake would probably have eaten the mouse, sooner or later.

Either way, that poor mouse!

[kentuck]

6. If the trap noise had not awakened her...?

Perhaps the snake would have gotten away unnoticed?

[soldierant]

7. My thought exactly.

[kentuck]

8. She bought the trap for the mouse.

Her intent was to kill it.

So began the karma.

[DonCoquixote]

14. nods

On the one hand, one can feel sorrow for the wife. On the other hand, it was a farm, not a zoo, meaning all of those critters, including the pious, pretentious pig, were to be butchered. It feels hard to feel pity for those that would gladly consider you to be food, or at best, vermin to be trapped. I know we should, and indeed, must, but that does not make it easy, especially as you know when the farmer wife dies, the farmer and her relatives will see the solution in butchery.

[hlthe2b]

9. Now THAT'S a parable for the times.

[LudwigPastorius]

10. !

First they came for the mouse and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a mouse.

Then they came for the chicken, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a chicken.

etc... - Martin "Old McDonald" Niemöller

[Totally Tunsie]

11. A great parable...I'll add it to another favorite:

The Lessons of a Bird: A Short Story
BY ALLEN KLEIN

Here is a story about a bird who found his lessons in the most unlikely of places:

Once upon a time, there was a nonconforming sparrow who decided not to fly south for the winter. However, soon the weather turned so cold that he reluctantly started southward. In a short time, ice began to form on his wings and he fell to earth in a barnyard, almost frozen. A cow passed by and crapped on the little sparrow. The sparrow thought it was the end. But then the manure warmed him and defrosted his wings. Warm and happy, able to breathe, he started to sing. Just then a large cat came by and hearing the chirping, investigated the sounds. The cat cleared away the manure, found the chirping sparrow and promptly ate him.

Now, it may seem that there are no lessons here, but there are. In fact, there are three:

1. Everyone who shits on you is not necessarily your enemy.
2. Everyone who gets you out of shit is not necessarily your friend.
3. If you’re warm and happy in a pile of shit, keep your mouth shut.

[DonCoquixote]

12. k and r

if there was a page that saved the greatest hits of DU, this one would be worthy of it.

[DonCoquixote]

13. the ugly truth is, and I am sorry to go all CRT (sarcasm)

But if this is a parable for our nation, the mouse would have been brown or black. They are the ones the farmer spends most of the effort to punish or kill. Meanwhile, the animals that THINK they have a better lot/rank often ignore what the mice say, because they assume whatever happens to the brown or black mice will NEVER affect them.

[dixiegrrrrl]

15. " Don't Look Up" indeed. n/t