Inspiration Collection 1: "There is hope, but not for us."

 I've been plowing through literature and art focusing on the tenuous relationship between purpose and life.  I thought it might be amusing to collect in one place the things that are inspiring me (or aiding in my spiraling, depending on perspective). 

A Little Fable  Franz Kafka

"Alas," said the mouse, "the 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 at last 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.



This story appeals to me because of the wry humor and desperate situation.  I like how fate arrives either way -- by the trap or by the cat but it's inevitable.  The "too late too late" idea is riveting, as is the idea that the mouse was unnecessarily propelled forward to its ultimate demise.  And I like that in the end it was optional, something we did not assume from the beginning.  Kafka once said "There is hope, but not for us."  Indeed there was hope for the mouse but it was undetected until pointed out by the cat, by which time it is too late.  It's a story of missed opportunity and of consequence, simple and profound.