A Southwestern Fable

It's been a while, but here's something from Casa Grande, Arizona (maybe you'll recognize the original in this adaptation--no it's not Aesop's "The Mouse, the Frog, and the Hawk"):

A little desert mouse scurried across the desert floor, moving from tumbleweed to tumbleweed, one at a time, hiding in the shadows. Eventually the mouse found himself out in the open desert where there was no vegetation, not even a cactus.

"Oh no," said the mouse. "I was so comfortable when I was surrounded by plants and could only see the next one to run to. The world was simpler. Here, I don't know where to run."

A hawk swooped down and scooped up the mouse. "What's the matter?," the hawk asked. "Out here, you can see everything that lies ahead," said the hawk just before it snapped the mouse's back in its talon.