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Opinion
Mouseman
Have you read "Who Moved My Cheese?" This "inspirational" best seller has sold over a million copies in Japan, and six million in the U.S. What sort of book is it?
In the story, there is a maze with two mice and two "littlepeople" in it. To survive they search for cheese hidden in the maze.
This, of course, is the setting for the common experiment used by psychologists. Mice are put in a maze where cheese is hidden, and their behavior is observed through a glass ceiling. The mice may feel "free" because they can run along the aisles, but in fact they are trapped inside a box.
At the beginning of the story, the mice and the littlepeople have a big piece of cheese, which they eat every day. Then one day it disappears. The mice instinctively rush off to find new cheese.
But the littlepeople, Hem and Haw, know how to think. Moreover, they have a sense of justice. Hem asks, "Who moved my cheese?" Then he says, "It's not fair!" (Interestingly Hem's question, which is also the title of the book, is in the Japanese version translated to mean, "Where did the cheese disappear to?" Where did the "who" disappear to?)
Eventually Haw leaves to look for new cheese, while Hem stays behind trying to understand what happened. As Haw runs along, he writes on the wall the "lessons" he is learning. These include such profundities as:
"The more important your cheese is to you, the more you want to hold on to it."
But the story also contains hidden lessons. These are not written anywhere but are communicated unconsciously to the reader. Some of these lessons are:
This maze is not a maze. It is life.
Accept the maze. Never try to alter or escape it.
In the maze, there is only one value: cheese.
Cheese is not something you make. It is something you "get."
Thinking — trying to understand your situation — will not get you the cheese.
Asking questions about fairness will not get you the cheese.
The more you behave like a mouse in a maze, the better your chance of finding the cheese.
To get the cheese you must be willing to leave your friend(s) behind.
If you can think of running in the maze as a New Age pilgrimage that brings you enlightenment, you will feel better.
Whatever changes happen, never resist, always adjust to them. You will find some way to get your cheese.
At the end of the story, Haw — of course — finds new cheese. After he eats, he again writes "lessons" on the wall. The first is: "Change happens. They keep moving the cheese."
So Haw knows that someone ("they") is moving the cheese. But he also knows that he must never ask the question his friend Hem asked: "Who moved my cheese?" Haw has mastered doublethink.
The overall lesson of the book can be summarized: If you want to get the cheese, be Mouseman.