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To be a city mouse, or to not be a city mouse, that is the question. Or more specifically: Would you rather be a mouse living in a city or a mouse living in the country?
Recently I’ve decided to make it my duty to ask the people around me whether or not they’d prefer to be a city mouse or a country mouse. The question is a lot more straightforward than some might think. There are no specific regions I have in mind besides maybe the assumption that you’d live in the United States and the main rule is that you have to be a mouse. Not a human. A mouse.
It seems like a stupid question (which arguably it is) but nonetheless I have sparked dozens of passionate discussions regarding the topic. So far, the debate has been a close split with 23 people voting to be a country mouse and 22 people voting to be a city mouse. Each side brings up various points though, all of which are extremely valid, and being a part of so many conversations has made me question which side I should align with.
My first instinct was to be a country mouse because of the sheer amount of dangers in the city. As a mouse, you have a lot to be worried about. You could fall and drown in the sewers, get stepped on by the masses of people on the sidewalk, fall into thousands of cheese traps in the apartments, or get run over by traffic. None of these outcomes seem very pleasant, and this isn’t even mentioning a fifth of the possibilities. I mostly shudder at the thought of being involved with the rat kings you can see in the city, and I leave it to each individual reader’s choice to look up what a rat king is. Just be warned that the photos are quite horrific.
Anyways, this dangerous life compared to a country living made this seem like an obvious choice. In the country, you can make it on to a farm and eat food growing in the fields. Maybe you can befriend the animals there too and make a chicken or pig friend. There’s also a lot of untouched nature surrounding human life as well that a mouse can make a living from, and, thankfully, there are no sewers to fall into. There’s even a smaller chance that you’d get run over! But admittedly, this hypothetical lifestyle is a little boring. It’s safe (mostly, if you don’t account for the preying birds that might swoop down and eat you) but it’s not fun. Peaceful, but not fun. And there’s a part of me that’s willing to sacrifice my peace for an exciting life, and so I turn to the life of a city mouse.
Now of course, this doesn’t get rid of the hazards of the city, but there are still a lot of fun possibilities. You have to take all of these possibilities with a grain of salt though, as only the smartest mice would be capable of doing these things without horribly injuring themselves. You can sneak into the Michelin Five-Star restaurants and eat good food, go to concerts to watch your performer from the walls, visit museums at midnight if you can find a way in, and finally (my personal favorite), you can go up on to the rooftops and look at the views. Being just a stealthy mouse also means that you can do all of this for free. As always, the city seems to win on the amount of fun opportunities you can do, and this may even outweigh the perils in the streets.
Honestly to me, this feels like it can be simplified into an easy debate. Safety and security versus fun and excitement. Of course, it’s not like you can’t have both, but it might be a little difficult, especially for a little mouse. However, when it comes down to that, I have an easy answer.
City mouse. And my reasoning is simple.
Maybe I’ll be the next Remy. He lived in a city, not the country.
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