A Little Fable
“Alas,” said the mouse, “the whole world is growing smaller every day. At the beginning it was so big that I was afraid, I kept running and running, and I was glad when I saw walls far away to the right and left, but these long walls have narrowed so quickly that I am in the last chamber already, and there in the corner stands the trap that I must run into.”
“You only need to change your direction,” said the cat, and ate it up.
Franz Kafka (1883 – 1924). Translated by Willa and Edwin Muir
Franz Kafka: The Complete Short Stories (Vintage:2005)
Rereading this little fable puts me in mind of a remark made by Kafka in conversation with his friend Max Brod: ‘O, there’s hope, infinite hope – for God – just not for us.’ Come to think of it, I have no difficulty whatsoever imagining God as a cat.
IM
Featured image accessed at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Kafka