| ............ |
Who Moved My Cheese
____________________________________________________________ Setting Basic Metaphor Characters Theme
Summary: Long ago and in a
faraway land, four characters would run through a maze, looking for
Cheese, which would make them happy. The furry mice, Sniff & Scurry, would
instinctively sniff & scurry with their simple little rodent brains to find
Cheese in their maze. The little people, Hem & Haw, would don their
tiny jogging suits & Nike running sneakers seeking Cheese
which would make them feel happy & successful. Sniff would smell out the general direction. Hem & Haw would think & learn, creating more sophisticated methods of finding Cheese. By the end of the day, all four found Cheese in Cheese Station C & were content. This went on for many-a-day. Hem & Haw even decorated Cheese Station C with the following saying: Having cheese makes you happy. Eventually the seemingly infinite supply of cheese ran out. The mice found the problem and the answer to be simple: The situation at Cheese Station C had changed, so they needed to change. They searched for New Cheese sniffing and running throughout the maze. Later that day Hem and Haw arrived at Cheese Station C and were unprepared for the realization that the Cheese was all gone. They spent all day looking in Station C for cheese, getting tired & later went home hungry and discouraged. Haw wrote on the wall: The more Important your Cheese is to you, the more you want to hold onto it. The next day Hem & Haw returned to Cheese Station C. They wondered, "Where are Sniff and Scurry?" They continued analyzing the problem & wondering who was to blame for their bad luck. Meanwhile Sniff and Scurry just kept on looking for New Cheese all over the maze & they found it. In fact, they found the biggest and most delicious supply of Cheese they had ever seen. _________________________ For Haw cheese meant feeling safe, having a loving family someday, & living in a cozy cottage on Cheddar Lane. For Hem, Cheese was becoming A Big Cheese in charge of others & owning a big house. Haw exclaimed, "Let's go!" Hem responded, "I like it here. it's comfortable. Besides, it's dangerous out there. I might get lost and make a fool of myself." The little people continued to go to Cheese Station C daily, finding no food & getting nightmares about not finding any Cheese. One day Haw laughed at himself, "Haw haw. We keep doing the same things over and over again and wonder why things don't get better We do the same thing and get the same results." He laughed at his folly when he saw what fear was doing to hem. "I'm putting my little running shoes on." Hem responded, "Why don't you wait until they put the Cheese back?" Haw wrote, "If you do not change, you can become extinct." And later when Haw was afraid to venture down the maze, he wrote, "What would you do if you weren't afraid?" Haw did what he would do if he wasn't afraid. He moved in a new direction. Haw knew fear could be good. It could prompt you to action when things are going to get worse. As weak as Haw was, he knew it was better to start now (late) than never. Haw was taking control, rather than simply letting things happen to him. And if Sniff & Scurry could move on, so could he. Haw started reflecting on the missing cheese, saying he would be alert to change - even if it were little bits missing each day. Haw wrote, "Smell the cheese often so you know when it is getting old." But Haw was fearful of going on alone, but he remembered his best times in the maze were when he was moving along. so he wrote a note on the wall in case Hem scurried by, "Movement in a new direction helps you find New Cheese." Haw asked himself, "Why do I feel so good when I don't have any Cheese & when I don't know where I am going." Before long, he knew why he felt good & wrote, "When you move beyond your fear, you feel free." He realized he had been held captive by his own fear. Haw kept thinking about what he could gain, instead of what he was losing. He had always thought that change would lead to something worse. He wrote, "Imagining myself enjoying New Cheese even before I find it leads me to it." Soon he found new types of cheeses. He decided to to see Hem & invite Him to feast with the New Cheese. On the way, he wrote the following, "The quicker you let go of old cheese, the sooner you find new cheese." Hem said, "No thanks, I want my own cheese back. I'm not going to change until I get what I want." Haw wrote, "It is safer to search in the maze than remain in a cheeseless situation." He said to himself, "I used to think more about what could go wrong that what could go right. I will now expect & look for change, so it will not surprise me." Haw wrote, "Old beliefs do not lead you to New Cheese." He knew when you change what you believe, you change what you do. You can believe that a change will harm you and resist it; or you can believe that finding new Cheese will help you, and embrace the change.. He wrote on the wall: "When you see that you can find and enjoy new cheese, you change course." Haw knew he would have had more cheese he he had expected change rather than wasting time denying the change had already taken place. He wrote, "Noticing small changes early helps you to adapt to the bigger changes that are to come." Eventually haw found the biggest stash of cheese ever & noticed Sniff and Scurry with their fat littler bellies, indicating they had been there for some time. As Haw enjoyed his Cheese, he asked himself, "What is it that made me change? Was it fear of starving?" He realized the biggest inhibitor to change lies within yourself and that nothing gets better until you change. Unattended problems don't go away; they grow. Haw also realized there is always New Cheese out there. He wondered, "Was Hem still hemmed in because he would not change?" Haw then wrote a summary on the wall of what he had learned: Change Happens Anticipate Change Monitor Change Adapt to Change Quickly Change Enjoy the change! Be ready to change quickly and enjoy it again and
again. Move with the cheese & enjoy it.
Haw heard a sound of movement . Could Hem be arriving. Haw said a little prayer and hoped, that maybe, at last, his friend was finally able to....
New Vocab Word: misocainea (mis-oh-KY-nee-uh, mi-soh-) noun
COMMENT Reading this books reinforces the fact that if we don't want to get hemmed in, we should adapt to real life - to change . & most importantly, if we want to be happy, to be rid of fears, to experience life to the fullest, to be bursting with joy and self-confidence, we had better learn to love change & look forward to eating New Cheese.
|
| .... | Home |
Little People: Hem & Haw