Ladies and gentleman... [Dramatic Pause] "The Mice in Council" by Aesop.
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Once upon a time the mice, being sadly distressed by the persecution of the cat, resolved to call a meeting to decide upon the best means of getting rid of their continual annoyance. Many plans were discussed and rejected. At last a young mouse got up and proposed that a bell should be hung round the cat's neck, that they might for the future always have notice of her coming, and so be able to escape.
This proposition was hailed with the greatest applause, and was agreed to at once unanimously. Upon which an old mouse, who had sat silent all the while, got up and said that he considered the contrivance most ingenious and that it would, no doubt, be quite successful. But he had only one short question, namely, which of them would bell the cat?
It is one thing to propose, another to execute.
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"What a great idea!" I thought while I was amidst these mice. We are such great thinkers in groups. Mice always are. They always go with the thinking of their fellow companions. it was such a simple solution. All we had to do was get the bell on the cat. We drew out plans on paper and everything. It looked something like this:
So simple! So glorious! What geniuses we mice are in groups! We stole a bell for it and everything. It was all going to work out so well. Of course, it didn't really happen. I blame the elder mouse. Naturally if he hadn't have asked who was going to do it, one of us would have surely done it just by the sheer energy we had. Old people are dumb.
But the way I see it, the fact that we didn't actually bell the cat does not mean that the idea was bad. Just imagine what life would be like if we had actually belled the cat! We all talked about it and pretty much decided that mice would just end up living forever. That's right. Without cats, we'd all be immortal.
But don't worry. We're never giving up! We're already working on a new plan: A poisonous mouse! Any volunteers?!
Thank you for reading this goofy blog. If you enjoyed it, you can comment below, or you can email me at tkwadeauthor@gmail.com. Thanks, and yes, I did draw the crappy picture.
It is cute! Yeah, actions are easy when left for someone else. There are plenty of people volunteering for someone ELSE to do it. They'd be selfish to refuse. This happens often among the mousy species we call "humanity." I am often "volunteered."
ReplyDeleteYeah, people are too quick to sacrifice one another, but they won't bother to risk their own lives. I'll say this though: If one of those mice had been brave enough to try then he would have been better than all of them! There are some people out there like that!
DeleteWithout execution, ideas are merely lost potential. Until you can make something real, it only exists in your head. Talk is cheap, action is all.
ReplyDeleteYes, actions matter more than talk. I know the idea is a stupid one, but I would have a lot of respect for the one mouse that would try this out. Even more if he succeeds. And if he did succeed, the other mice need to make him king.
DeleteIdeas come easy but to execute them you have to find individuals with the talents to see them through. Often those with the ideas find it necessary to exploit those with specific skills volunteering them for for what they would rather not do themselves. If there was only good in the world there would be a community of individuals doing their best to make things better without those who believe in sacrifice.
ReplyDeleteMy time in retail gives me an understanding of what that is like. It's easy to say that a job should be done like this and that, but they don't understand that some of those rules really make things horrible for the workers.
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