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¶ … Moved My Cheese? By Spencer Johnson, M.D. $19.95, 94 pp. New York G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1998.
Johnson has made up a fable to demonstrate that we will have change in our lives whether we want it or not, and that what is important is how we cope with it. Using two mice and two small men, he shows the readers that it's how we handle change that will decide how happy we are.
In his story, two mice and two small men live in a maze. The mice, named "Sniff" and Scurry," use their animal instincts to help them solve problems. The miniature people are called "Hem" and Haw." They have found a supply of cheese that keeps them all alive, but one day the cheese disappears. The rest of the story tells how the four characters cope with the disappearance of their cheese, which they need to live.
The mice simply go off and hunt for more cheese. Sniff uses his good sense of smell, and Scurry uses his curiosity and high energy to explore and look for new supplies. Hem and Haw, however, are terrified by what has happened and don't know what to do. They stay at the place where the cheese was hoping it will return. Haw notices that the mice have gone looking for more cheese and thinks...
However, Hem wants to stay where he is, even though it no longer gives him what he needs. Finally, Haw tries to reason with Hem. He says, "Sometimes, Hem, things change and are never the same again. This looks like one of those times.
That's life! Life moves on. And so should we."
So Haw starts to hunt for a solution. It's very scary, but he discovers that doing something feels better than doing nothing. He imagines how happy he will be when he finds more cheese, and that keeps him going. He finds more cheese, including some he's never tried before. He likes the new cheese. He takes some back to Hem, but Hem doesn't want new cheese. He wants the old cheese, and he wants it where it used to be. Hem realizes that this isn't a sensible response, and starts writing down the new things he's learning about life after his cheese has been moved, such as, "The quicker you let go of old cheese, the sooner you find new cheese." He recognizes that although he didn't want his old cheese to disappear, it has, and he has to get on with his new life, and that stubbornly demanding that things be the way they were before just won't work.
Haw…
Moved My Cheese? Before the video; Describe a current situation in which you or others are having difficulty dealing with change. My mother My mother is dealing with the fact that people in our family are not as close to one another as she would like them to be. How do you feel about the situation? I believe that those people have revealed their true colors and that we are better off without them. How do
Moved My Cheese? Change is not an easy thing to do for many individuals, in life and in work. Change means moving away from your comfortable routine and accepting something new and different, a new chapter in your personal or professional life -- and that, for some people, can be scary. Spencer Johnson has written a clever, entertaining book about change and the challenges it presents, titled Who Moved My
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