City Mouse, Country Mouse

To me this is the classic tale of “different.”  You know Aesop’s fable, I’m sure. But, just in case you don’t, here is my digest version: 

There are two mouse cousins, one resides in the city and one resides in the country. The City Mouse visits his country cousin, who offers a meal of simple food. I don’t exactly remember, but it was like biscuits and gravy, or gruel seasoned with fatback grease, or such. His hip city cousin, who, may I add at this point, was apparently lacking in manners, balked at having to eat such fare. “You must visit me in the city and see what fine cuisine we have.” (I don’t think those were Aesop’s exact words, but it’s what comes to my mind.)

Anyway, Country Mouse makes a visit to the city for a taste of the "good life," and is properly wined/dined like royalty. I’m certain that they also traveled about in limos and visited all the “hot-spots,” etc., but that was not part of Aesop’s version. In his story, however, the pair is subsequently attacked by feral city cats, rats or terriers. The moral of the story being the trade-off of simple food and a simple, but safe life versus opulence, big-city lights and big-city crime.

Now, some time after Aesop’s tale, Beatrix Potter “reworked” the story and reversed the visits. As an aside, I do like this woman and find her personal story fascinating. So, Ms. Potter has the Country Mouse first visiting her city cousin. I’m not sure if she made them females, but I’d like to think that she did. The Country Mouse is abhorred by the rich, foreign foods, and is also chased by feral cats, rats or terriers. Upon her cousin’s visit to the country, the city girl is thus frightened by the noisy farm machinery, the tornado-prone weather, and the multitudes of huge farm animals, that can squish a tiny mouse in one step. Like I said before, not exactly Potter verbatim, but my take on her work.

But, here is where I like Beatrix’s version better. Her moral is definitely “it’s not good, it’s not bad, it’s just different,” no trade-offs, just different. Each mouse is apparently in the right place for herself.