Of Mice and Men

Posted on | November 11, 2009 |

Cleaning behind a door today I found two mice huddling together. They were obviously juveniles, and seemed very sleepy. So I found a piece of cardboard, slid it under them, and deposited them gently in a cardboard box. They continued to huddle.

Curious about this behavior I took a closer look. One mouse was looking very dead, but the other continued to snuggle up to it. As they were both about the same size, and both were smaller than average, I wondered if the surviving sibling was hoping for some warmth. I placed food near the live mouse, but it showed no interest whatsoever, although it continued to move, although not much, and breathe in that rapid mouse-like way that makes them seem permanently out of breath.

Whatever I tried the living mouse wanted only to be close to the dead one, ignoring everything else.

I don’t know what was going on in its rodent brain; perhaps the living mouse was too starved to be able to eat or drink. All I could see, from my human perspective, was the way a living creature chose to cling to a dead one in preference to living its own life. How often have we, all of us, clung to a memory of someone or something long gone; some memory of the past that stops us being alive now and lures us only towards our own death? How often have we sought comfort in those things that can bring no comfort, but only despair?

Some things are true, both of mice and of men.

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