OT: The Mousetrap

[Guest guest]

This is a very simplistic story, but a powerful message.

 

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

opening a package; what food might it contain?

 

He was aghast to discover that it was a mouse trap!

 

Retreating to the farmyard, the mouse proclaimed the warning, " There is a

mouse trap in the house, there is a mouse trap in the house. "

 

The chicken clucked and scratched, raised her head and said, " Mr. Mouse, I

can tell you 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 mouse trap in the

house. "

 

" I am so very sorry Mr. Mouse, " sympathized the pig, " but there is nothing

I can do about it but pray; be assured that you are in my prayers. "

 

The mouse then turned to the cow, who replied, " Like wow, Mr. Mouse, a

mouse trap; am I in grave danger? Duh? "

 

So the mouse returned to the house, head down and dejected to face the

farmer's mouse trap alone.

 

That very night a sound was heard throughout the house, like the sound of a

mouse trap catching its prey. The farmer's wife rushed to see what was

caught.

 

In the darkness, she did not see that 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.

 

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.

 

His wife's sickness continued so that 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, in fact, she died, and so many people

came for her funeral the farmer had the cow slaughtered to provide meat for

all of them to eat.

 

So the next time you hear that someone is facing a problem and think that

it does not concern you, remember that when the least of us is threatened,

we are all at risk.

 

And so it may be with Germany, France and Belgium one day . . .