I want to share with you an old fable that I’m sure you already know. It is about the mouse that roared.
Once up on a time, there lived a little mouse. He lived in constant fear of a cat that lived in the village. One day, a powerful space alien magician came to town. “M’lord,” the mouse begged of him, “thou art wise and powerful, and my life is most miserable because of a cat. Woudst thou return joy into my life by making me into a cat? Then I would no longer live in fear.”
The magician smiled, raised his wand, said some magical words, drew some lines on a chart, and the mouse found himself a cat as he wished. But, he was the most frightened cat in the land. A dog that had been of no concern to him before, now made his life unbearable with fear. Every time he ventured out of his out, the dog chased him.
The cat, desperate with fear, went back to the magician. “M’lord,” he said, “being a cat is most miserable because of a dog. Wouldst thou return joy to my life by making me into a dog? Then I would no longer live in fear.”
The magician obliged, and the cat became a dog. But he became a dog that lived in constant fear for there was a huge tiger that lived in the forest and made his life…miserable.
Again, this poor creature set out for the magician. This time he asked to be made into a tiger, and it was done. Suddenly, the tiger now found himself in the most terrifying circumstances he had ever known. Hunters came into the forest with rifles and dogs. They even set out traps for him. He had never known more fear than he did now.
Finally, the magician was asked by the tiger to be made into a man, that he would fear nothing from that day on. For the first time, the magician spoke. “As a mouse you knew nothing of cats. As a cat, you knew nothing of dogs. As a dog, you knew nothing of tigers. You know nothing of sickness, old age, or failure. You know nothing about finding and losing a job. No, I will not make you a man, I will again make you a mouse, for in your heart, you are a mouse anyway.”
Don’t be a mouse.