posted August 09, 2007 06:23 PM         

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 quite devastated
however 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, then
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 next 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 now 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 really it's no skin off my nose."

So, the mouse returned back 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
that it was in fact a venomous snake whose
tail the trap had caught.

The snake turned around and bit the farmer's
wife.
The farmer heard her scream and hurried to
her rescue...

The farmer promptly rushed her to the hospital and many, many, hours later she returned home with a fever.

Now, 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.

Days later, his wife's sickness still continued,
so friends and neighbors came to sit with her
around the clock.

In order to feed them, the farmer butchered the pig.

However 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 someone is facing a problem and think it doesn't concern you,

please remember --
when one of us is threatened, we are all at risk.

We are all involved in this journey called life.

We must keep an eye out for one another and make an extra effort to encourage and help one another.

Each of us is a vital thread in another persons tapestry. Our lives are woven together for a reason.

posted August 09, 2007 07:34 PM         

There was no way they could help the mouse get rid of the mousetrap.
And even though in the trickle down it did concern them, they still could not have gotten rid of the mousetrap.
If the mouse had warned the chicken, pig and cow they were going to get butchered, what good would it have done?
Sometimes all we can do is listen.
BTW, the farmer's wife was stupid.
What kind of idiot checks a trap of any kind without looking first?

And in the dark too! Stupid woman.
Maybe the mouse should have been yelling.."warning! stupid woman in the house!" instead!

posted August 10, 2007 08:14 PM         

Another real world example of why the forums SEARCH area should be repaired and or usable.

I did actually attempt a search prior to this post, it resulted in nothing at all.
Again, Bluemoon I apoloigise.

posted August 10, 2007 10:47 PM         

We are all in this together and what does affect one of us affects all of us inadvertently.

You made some very good points about the story, Fayte. It's true that at times as much as we would like to help we find there is nothing that we can do but sympathize and just be there for the person.