by Helen Jamieson
(An article submitted to the January 2007 issue of Graceviews by our dear departed, fondly remembered friend and fellow congregant Helen Jamieson. I thought it especially appropriate given the times we live in.)
A mouse looked through the crack in the wall to see the farmer and his wife opening a package. “What food might this contain?” wondered the mouse. He was devastated to discover that it was a mousetrap.
Retreating to the barnyard, 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 of grave concern to you, but it is of no consequence to me. I cannot let it bother me.”
The mouse then scurried over to the pigsty and told the pig, “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 ran out to the pasture and said to the cow, “There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!” The cow chewed her cud and said, “I am sorry for you, but it doesn’t affect me.” So the mouse, sad and afraid, returned to the house to face the mousetrap alone.
That very night a sound was heard throughout the house – the sound of a mousetrap catching its prey.
The farmer’s wife rushed to see what was in the trap. In the darkness she did not see that the victim was a venomous snake whose tail had been 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 barnyard for the main ingredient.
But his wife’s sickness continued, and friends and neighbours came to sit with her around the clock. To feed them, the farmer had to butcher the pig.
The farmer’s wife died. So many people came to the funeral that the farmer had the cow slaughtered to provide enough meat for all of them.
The mouse watched it all from his crack in the wall with great sadness.
So, the next time you hear that someone is facing a problem and you think it doesn’t concern you, remember, when one of us is threatened, we all are at risk. We are all involved in this journey of life. Each of us is a vital thread in another person’s tapestry; our lives are woven together for a reason.