{"id":605,"date":"2014-04-09T23:52:08","date_gmt":"2014-04-10T03:52:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gollypolly.com\/30473\/?p=605"},"modified":"2014-04-09T23:52:08","modified_gmt":"2014-04-10T03:52:08","slug":"take-the-cheese","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gollypolly.com\/30473\/?p=605","title":{"rendered":"Take the cheese…"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"miceandcheese\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I love when the mouse takes the cheese.\u00a0 I do.<\/p>\n

I think it started a long time ago.\u00a0 I was probably 6 years old.\u00a0 We lived in a city, and weren’t allowed to have pets (much to my chagrin).<\/p>\n

Anyway, one warm and sunny day, I found a little mouse in the grass.\u00a0 Something was terribly wrong though.\u00a0 It didn’t run or scurry.\u00a0 It just laid.\u00a0 It didn’t look hurt from the outside.\u00a0 But I knew it was in trouble.<\/p>\n

So, like a million other little kids in the world, I went inside, absconded an old shoe box for a make shift mousey hospital, and back outside I went.<\/p>\n

I furnished it well.\u00a0 Lots of torn up grass, a couple of twigs and a little plastic dish with water.\u00a0 But the mouse just laid there…. wide eyed… and breathing hard.<\/p>\n

Back inside.\u00a0 Mom…. can I have some cheese?\u00a0 So she cut a couple of slices from the brick of Velveeta which could ALWAYS be found in our fridge.\u00a0 I ate most of it… because even at six… I knew that was WAY too much Velveeta for a mouse that size.<\/p>\n

But the mouse would not take the cheese.<\/p>\n

Back in.\u00a0 This time to ask for some of Dad’s Cheddar Cheese.\u00a0 Mom commented about me turning into a mouse if I kept eating so much cheese.\u00a0 I’m sure I got as wide-eyed as my little friend outside in the box.<\/p>\n

But, I must have kept it hidden…. because I went back to the mouse… this time with an offering of Sharp Cheddar.<\/p>\n

Again.\u00a0 The mouse would not take the cheese.<\/p>\n

I sat cross legged there, in front of the box, not knowing how to help the mouse.\u00a0 It wasn’t long until it died.\u00a0 I was crushed.\u00a0 I cried and cried and cried.\u00a0 I went in and told my Mom about the mouse.\u00a0 (She wasn’t mad about my ulterior motives with the aforementioned cheese.)<\/p>\n

Instead, she suggested that I give the mouse a proper burial.\u00a0 Which I did.\u00a0 All the way behind the garage by the cement brick wall.<\/p>\n

And I never forgot that afternoon, of caring for that little being.<\/p>\n

To this day, I root for the mouse.\u00a0 Whenever I see a mouse trap, I want the mouse to take the cheese.\u00a0 I want him to beat the odds.\u00a0 To clear the trap.<\/p>\n

I don’t like it when people set traps for one another, either.\u00a0 And by this… I mean people traps. \u00a0\u00a0 I don’t know many people who actually do this… but some folks are pretty good at being passive-aggressive, or using other measures … to get a desired and beneficial outcome for themselves.\u00a0 They manipulate.\u00a0 They deceive.<\/p>\n

They put the cheese in the trap.<\/p>\n

Now I think it better…. that we should share the cheese.\u00a0 But even if someone wants to keep all the cheese for themselves… I don’t think it is a good idea to break someone else in half… just because sharing wasn’t an option for them.<\/p>\n

That’s what we think.\u00a0 Me, and the mouse in my pocket.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel the capacity to care is the thing which gives life its deepest significance.\u201d\u00a0 — \u00a0Pablo Casals<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I love when the mouse takes the cheese.\u00a0 I do. I think it started a long time ago.\u00a0 I was probably 6 years old.\u00a0 We lived in a city, and weren’t allowed to have pets (much to my chagrin). Anyway, one warm and sunny day, I found a little mouse in the grass.\u00a0 Something was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-605","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nowyouseeit"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gollypolly.com\/30473\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gollypolly.com\/30473\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gollypolly.com\/30473\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gollypolly.com\/30473\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gollypolly.com\/30473\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=605"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/gollypolly.com\/30473\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":610,"href":"https:\/\/gollypolly.com\/30473\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605\/revisions\/610"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gollypolly.com\/30473\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gollypolly.com\/30473\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gollypolly.com\/30473\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}