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Jul 14, 2005, 12:36pm

Mousetrap.

A mouse looked through the crack in the wall to see the farmer and his wife
open a package.

"What food might this contain?" He was devastated to discover it was a
mousetrap.

Retreating to the farmyard, 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 a 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."

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. She 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 -- like 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 was a venomous snake whose tail the trap had 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 farmyard for the soup's
main ingredient.

But his wife's sickness continued, so friends and neighbors came to sit with
her around the clock. To feed them, the farmer butchered the pig.

The farmer's wife did not get well; she died. So many people came for her
funeral, the farmer had the cow slaughtered to provide enough meat for all
of them.

So, the next time you hear someone is facing a problem and think it doesn't
concern you, remember -- when one of us is threatened, we are all at risk.

Jul 14, 2005, 2:24pm

So True :)

Imagine

Jul 14, 2005, 10:45pm

LoL Thanks for the great parable. Sometimes stories convey morals/lessons in a
more significant way. There is another moral/lesson to be learned in a story I
heard. I share it below:

There once was an Indian who walked in the cold winter and came upon a snake.
The snake asked him to pick him up and carry him, for he was so cold. The Indian
said, "No. You are a snake and you will bite me." "No." said the snake, " I
won't bite you. Just pick me up, I'm soooo cold." Indian: "Do you promise me, if
I pick you up, you won't bite me?" Snake: "I promise." So the Indian picked up
the snake and tucked him into his coat and there the snake bit him!" Shocked the
Indian dropped the snake, saying "You promised! You said you wouldn't bite me!"
The snake replied, " You knew what I was when you picked me up."

There is a lesson to be learned here. A very important lesson.

CoLor

[View Quote] > Mousetrap.
>
> A mouse looked through the crack in the wall to see the farmer and his wife
> open a package.
>
> "What food might this contain?" He was devastated to discover it was a
> mousetrap.
>
> Retreating to the farmyard, 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 a 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."
>
> 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. She 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 -- like 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 was a venomous snake whose tail the trap had 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 farmyard for the soup's
> main ingredient.
>
> But his wife's sickness continued, so friends and neighbors came to sit with
> her around the clock. To feed them, the farmer butchered the pig.
>
> The farmer's wife did not get well; she died. So many people came for her
> funeral, the farmer had the cow slaughtered to provide enough meat for all
> of them.
>
> So, the next time you hear someone is facing a problem and think it doesn't
> concern you, remember -- when one of us is threatened, we are all at risk.

Jul 14, 2005, 10:50pm

There is a story about four people. Their names are
EVERYBODY, SOMEBODY, ANYBODY, and NOBODY.
The story goes that there was a very important job that needed
to be done. EVERYBODY was asked to do this job. Now
ANYBODY could have done this job but NOBODY was
willing to do it. Then SOMEBODY got angry about this
because it was EVERYBODY'S job to do. Well,
EVERYBODY thought that ANYBODY could have done it!
But NOBODY realized that EVERYBODY blamed
SOMEBODY for not doing the job. Still NOBODY did it. The
arguing got worse and finally NOBODY would talk to
ANYBODY and EVERYBODY blamed SOMEBODY. What
a shame that ANYBODY could have done the job and
EVERYBODY could have helped SOMEBODY but yet
NOBODY did it!


--
- Mark Randall
http://zetech.swehli.com

[View Quote]

Jul 15, 2005, 12:02am

I don't happen to remember any nice little parables like these, but I sure
am enjoying them! :)) Anyone have more?

[View Quote]

Jul 15, 2005, 6:38pm

Nice parable. I would love more of these. :D

Anyways, this pretty much reminds me of the old days of the America when
there are so many small towns and so few large cities whereas there are so
abundant rural area full of wildlifes, farmlands, etc. Heh, I have an
appointment for eye checkup that will take me directly to a small town in
Missouri through the vast rural area. I love to explore and obviously I get
the chance on that day once again.

If you don't know, the exploring of the real-life world in outdoor can
really give you lots of inspiration for building towns, houses, offices,
farms, etc. I owe a large debt to these explorations (as well in
explorations in AW) for my inspiration to build something in Active Worlds.

It bode well to my love of crafting out a huge world full of rural, urban,
and unsettled area that includes towns, farmland, forests, etc. If anyone
have played Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, that world in the game was
certainly the type of world that I am describing. I was particularly
impressed by the town of Fort Carson in that game. It has a 50's style
motel, a realistic downtown area (with tree-lined median in the street and
rows of building along the street as well a courthouse-looking building),
etc. that are surrounded at best by a vastness of deserts.

I try to craft out the world like those above but I can never be satisfied.
It will look real good but it won't stop, never being fully satisfied.
Therefore I continually creates contents in these world as it expands. I
have a great vision but the vision itself is continually expanding without
an end in a sight.

That's all and thank you, AWI and folks, for giving me an opportunity to
enjoy what Active Worlds have to offer. It is my pleasure to be part of the
Active Worlds community and I really enjoy it. I am grateful for it.

Sincerely,
Legion

[View Quote]

Jul 15, 2005, 8:50pm

Not a parable, but one of my favorite Deep Thoughts:

"If I lived back in the wild west days, instead of carrying a six-gun in my
holster, I'd carry a soldering iron. That way, if some smart-aleck cowboy
said something like "Hey, look. He's carrying a soldering iron!" and started
laughing, and everybody else started laughing, I could just say, "That's
right, it's a soldering iron. The soldering iron of justice." Then everybody
would get real quiet and ashamed, because they had made fun of the soldering
iron of justice, and I could probably hit them up for a free drink." --
Jack Handey


[View Quote]

Jul 16, 2005, 8:17pm

One day a King left his palace for a horseback ride and after riding for
several hours became lost in a deep and almost impenetrable jungle. Reining
his horse, he looked about him and was terror stricken as he saw a tiger
coming towards him. He leapt from his horse, quickly climbed a nearby tree
and sat on one of its branches.

The tiger came to the same tree and sat on his haunches, waiting to devour
the King whenever he came down. Seeing this, the King began to test the
branch on which he was sitting to make certain it was strong enough to bear
his weight. But as he looked along its length he was filled with fear, for
he saw that two mice, one white and the other black, were gnawing away the
inner end of the branch where it joined the tree.

He looked down at the ground to see where he would fall when the branch gave
way, and whether the earth below was hard or soft. But here another
terrifying sight met his gaze. Beside the tiger, there was a huge python
with its jaws wide open, waiting for him to fall. The King trembled with
fright because his situation was so desperate.

As he clung to the branch wondering what he might do to save himself, he
suddenly saw that honey was dripping from a branch above his head. He began
to taste it and as he did so the honey had an amazing effect. The king,
absorbed in it's sweetness, soon became completely oblivious of his danger.

The tiger, the mice and the python, were all forgotten as he became more and
more enchanted with the taste of the marvellous honey. In a short time, of
course, the mice gnawed through the branch. It fell to the ground, and the
king, with a happy smile on his lips, was killed.

The tree up which the King climbed in his search for safety symbolizes this
world, the dense and dark material universe. The tiger represents death,
which eats every living creature born into this world. The python is the
grave.

The branch on which the King sat represents the span of our life, whether it
be ten, twenty or fifty years or more. And the two mice are day and night,
which inevitably shorten the span of life.

The honey symbolizes this world and it's ephemeral pleasures, in which we
become so completely absorbed that we forget even death.

The result of becoming absorbed in the worldly pleasures is that, like the
King, we die without discovering the true purpose of our life.

Jul 16, 2005, 11:13pm

Where there are humans you'll find flies, and Buddhas.

Jul 18, 2005, 10:09pm

Here's another one I just found while looking through some of my old stuff; if I remember it correctly, this story was from a chain letter I received many thousands of years ago...

===============================================================================

One day, when I was a freshman in high school, I saw a kid from my class was walking home from school.

His name was John.

It looked like he was carrying all of his books.

I thought to myself, "Why would anyone bring home all his books on a Friday? He must really be a nerd."

I had quite a weekend planned (parties and a football game with my friends tomorrow afternoon), so I shrugged my shoulders and went on.

As I was walking, I saw a bunch of kids running toward him.

They ran at him, knocking all his books out of his arms and tripping him so he landed in the dirt.

His glasses went flying, and I saw them land in the grass about ten feet from him.

He looked up and I saw this terrible sadness in his eyes.

My heart went out to him. So, I jogged over to him and as he crawled around looking for his glasses, and I saw a tear in his eye.

As I handed him his glasses, I said, "Those guys are jerks. They really should get lives."

He looked at me and said, "Hey thanks!"

There was a big smile on his face. It was one of those smiles that showed real gratitude.

I helped him pick up his books, and asked him where he lived.

As it turned out, he lived near me, so I asked him why I had never seen him before. He said he had gone to private school before now.

I would have never hung out with a private school kid before.

We talked all the way home, and I carried some of his books.

He turned out to be a pretty cool kid.

I asked him if he wanted to play a little football with my friends. He said yes.

We hung out all weekend and the more I got to know John, the more I liked him, and my friends thought the same of him.

Monday morning came, and there was John with the huge stack of books again.

I stopped him and said, "Boy, you are gonna really build some serious muscles with this pile of books everyday!"

He just laughed and handed me half the books.

Over the next four years, John and I became best friends.

When we were seniors, we began to think about college.

John decided on Georgetown, and I was going to Duke.

I knew that we would always be friends, that the miles would never be a problem.

He was going to be a doctor, and I was going for business on a football scholarship.

John was valedictorian of our class.

I teased him all the time about being a nerd.

He had to prepare a speech for graduation.

I was so glad it wasn't me having to get up there and speak.

Graduation day, I saw John. He looked great.

He was one of those guys that really found himself during high school.

He filled out and actually looked good in glasses.

He had more dates than I had and all the girls loved him.

Boy, sometimes I was jealous.

Today was one of those days.

I could see that he was nervous about his speech.

So, I smacked him on the back and said, "Hey, big guy, you'll be great!"

He looked at me with one of those looks (the really grateful one) and smiled.

"Thanks," he said.

As he started his speech, he cleared his throat, and began.

"Graduation is a time to thank those who helped you make it through those tough years. Your parents, your teachers, your siblings, maybe a coach...but mostly your friends... I am here to tell all of you that being a friend to someone is the best gift you can give them. I am going to tell you a story."

I just looked at my friend with disbelief as he told the story of the first day we met.

He had planned to kill himself over the weekend.

He talked of how he had cleaned out his locker so his Mom wouldn't have to do it later and was carrying his stuff home.

He looked hard at me and gave me a little smile.

"Thankfully, I was saved. My friend saved me from doing the unspeakable.."

I heard the gasp go through the crowd as this handsome, popular boy told us all about his weakest moment.

I saw his Mom and dad looking at me and smiling that same grateful smile.

Not until that moment did I realize it's depth.

Never underestimate the power of your actions. With one small gesture you can change a person's life. For better or for worse.

===============================================================================

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