The Cat, The Rooster, and The Mouse

A young mouse begged his mother to let him take his first look at the world outside the mouse hole. "Very well," she answered, "but don't stay long, and come back and tell me everything you see."

          The little mouse had not been gone five minutes, when he came dashing back into the mouse hole as fast as he could run. "My dear, whatever happened?" asked his mother.

          "Oh, Mother," said the little mouse, trembling all over, "there are such strange creatures out there! First I saw a pretty animal, with soft, striped fur and yellow eyes. When she saw me she waved her long tail as if she were glad to see me. But then I saw the most terrible monster! His head was all red, and his feet had long claws. And when he saw me, he opened up his mouth and let out a horrible shriek of 'Cock-a-doo-dle-do!' I ran away as fast as I could!"

          "My dear," said his mother, "that pretty creature you saw was a cat, and she likes to eat young mice like you for dinner. And that terrible monster was nothing but as rooster, who only eats seeds and grain. Next time you go out, be more careful, and remember never to judge others by their looks."

Appearances can be deceiving.

          The little mouse should be more careful next time he goes out. But, for his argument, appearances can be deceiving. Let’s say you saw two people crossing the street; one was a nice looking old lady and the other one was a huge 6 foot 300 pound man with tattoos and rings all over his body.  Who would you help if they ask help? Chances are that you would help the old lady. But what if I told you that the little old lady was really a bank robber trying to rob the bank on the other side of the street and the huge man was a pacifist who wouldn't hurt a fly. Any normal person would not have known that and gone with one option only based on appearance.

          I think that we all have unique appearances to express our true character, opinions, and personality, but it is up to us on how we make up our appearance and sometimes  we make it hard to see clearly. We think that we are really showing our true selves to the world, or maybe just expressing our own preferences, when we really are misguiding other people like the huge punk in the example. But it isn't just people who misguide other people with their appearances.

          Books around the world are being sold based on many different things every day. How do you select a book? May be a friend recommended it to you. Or, maybe you saw it on a book review site.  But a lot of books that I look into are based on the looks of the cover. I can't speak for everybody, but my guess is that mostly everybody does that too. It's just instinct for my eyes to be drawn to the most aesthetically pleasing thing in the room. Yet most of the time, the book that I pick up is a disappointment. This is a straight shot example of don't judge a book by its cover, which is similar to the moral of the story.

          So the next time you see something that is comforting, heartwarming, pleasing, humbling, or fragile on the outside, think before you act because it is what is on the inside that really matters.