A Polite Parable

Dear Jessica Brennan

Once there was a rabbit named Hoppy.  He was a painter. Hoppy painted all the houses in his town, and everyone always liked to have him over to do their painting because he was kind. “I’m not the best painter in the world,” Hoppy liked to say, “But I do a good job and there’s more to working with others than just being able to paint.”  Hoppy was also a great cook and liked to have his neighbours over for dinner.  He could tell a good joke, and the town-folk liked to hang out with him because he was personable and considerate.

One day an ant moved into town.  This ant was a lawyer. The ant’s name was Scurry. Scurry had Hoppy do some painting for her. “You missed a spot Hoppy”, she said. Hoppy fixed the spot immediately.

Scurry went into town and told everyone she could find that Hoppy wasn’t much of a painter.  The town’s folk were too polite to correct her, even though they didn’t agree. They didn’t want to get involved. Scurry would sit in a restaurant that Hoppy painted and say, “Not much of a paint job.” The town’s folk didn’t like Scurry very much, but they were too polite to say. The interesting thing was that it was known far and wide that Scurry had no clients, and had never won any of her cases, but the town’s folk were too polite to say.

Hoppy thought he could help Scurry and tried to be her friend. Scurry kept making him paint and re-paint things, so she could be happy.  Hoppy suggested that she find another painter, but she would not.  She said Hoppy was the only one for her, so Hoppy kept trying to be a better painter and get her approval. As time went on, Scurry just treated him worse and worse.

Hoppy was feeling pretty bad. He started to question whether he should paint at all. When he walked through town he would say, “Good morning Scurry,” and some days Scurry would say good morning cheerfully, but other days, Scurry wouldn’t reply at all. Eventually Hoppy moved out of town.  Being around Scurry was too stressful.  It made him feel bad and anxious every day. The town’s folk missed Hoppy, they blamed Scurry, but they were too polite to say.

Scurry then moved on to Bloke the mouse who had a bakery. Scurry told everyone that Bloke’s cookies were stale and the bread was too doughy.  It wasn’t true and the town’s folk didn’t agree but they were too polite to say. It was none of their business after all. Bloke wondered if he could help Scurry. She was obviously in need of a friend, but the more he tried to befriend her, the worse she treated him. One day she seemed nice and friendly, and another she was very mean. Bloke told Scurry about another baker who might make better cookies.  Scurry insisted that Bloke was the baker she wanted to use, so Bloke kept trying to perfect things for her, but nothing was ever good enough. Over time, Bloke closed down shop and moved away. It was too stressful having Scurry always looking for everything that was wrong.

One day Bloke and Hoppy met for a drink. “Why did we have to leave our town?” asked Hoppy, “We loved it there once, but now we don’t. She’s just a little ant after all.”

“I know”, said Bloke, “Maybe we should have ignored Scurry and listened to our own guts.  Maybe we should have spoken up.”

“Maybe”, said Hoppy, “But, I guess she knew that we were too afraid to say.”

Love Mum

xo