Not My Problem

I'm sure you've all heard the story about the Nazis coming for the Jews, and the other religious groups saying it wasn't their problem. Here's another tale of a similar nature. I borrowed (stole) this from Acme Authors Link. DL Larson blogged it. She says she didn't write it, but I thank her for posting it.

Our compulsion to mind our own business reminds me of the following story. I am not the author, merely the one passing it on ...

'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 devastated to discover it was a mousetrap.

Retreating to the barnyard, the mouse proclaimed this warning: "There's a mousetrap in the house! There's a mousetrap in the hosue!"

The chicken clucked and scratched, raised her head and said, "Mr. Mouse, I can tell this is 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 mousetrap in the house! There's 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 to the cow and said, "There's a mousetrap in the house! There's a mousetrap in the house!"

The cow said, "Wow, Mr. Mouse. I'm sorry for you, but it's no skin off my nose."
So the mouse returned to the house, head down and dejected, to face the farmer's 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 caught. In the darkness, she did not see it. It was a venomous snake whose tail was caught in the trap. The snake bit the farmer's wife.

The farmer rushed her to the hospital. When she returned home she still had a fever. Everyone knows you treat a fever with fresh chicken soup. So the farmer took his hatchet to the barnyard for the soup's main ingredient: chicken.

But his wife's sickness continued. Friends and neighbors came to sit with her around the clock. To feed them, the farmer butchered the pig. But alas, the farmer's wife did not get well. She died.

So many people came for her funeral that the farmer had the cow slaughtered to provide enough meat for all of them for the funeral luncheon.

The mouse looked upon it all from his crack in the wall with great sadness.

So, please remember the next time you hear someone is facing a problem and you think it doesn't concern you, remember the chicken, the pig and the cow.

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 one another.