A little intro:
Catching the Past Blogs will be released the week before my monthly newsletter comes out. They are not the same as my Newsletter Catching the Past segment. Although, I may from time to time give you a teaser of the subscriber only segment at the end of the blog (like I do today).
March's Catching the Past Blog
"Bell the Cat"
I was reading a story where two men needed to confront a powerful businessman. One man remarked someone would need to "bell the cat."*
This expression comes from one of Aesop's fables, The Mice in Council, where a group of mice decide one of them ought to put a bell on the cat. Bell (or belling) the cat has since become an expression for someone in a group endeavour taking on the responsibility for a dangerous task.
I don't know about you, but there are certain things I'm willing to do even though they scare me, like kill the spider in the house (although I have chickened out a few times...).
The other day I volunteered to be the mummy at my son's school family fun night. None of the other adults in group were willing, but I didn't much care if they covered me head to foot in toilet paper.
It was going just fine until they did my face. They put the toilet paper too close to my nose, and I was having trouble breathing.
That's when I started panicking, but I held myself together until after the judging. Whew! (We did not win, FYI. The mummy wearing sunglasses won.)
But if I was present at Aesop's mice council, I wouldn't have volunteered to put the bell on a cat. My nerves would never last.
What things are you willing to 'bell the cat' for?
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Teaser for March's Newsletter Catching the Past
What do lions, tigers, the Tower of London, and a German flute have in common?
The answer will only be given in my subscriber newsletter.
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*The Way We Live Now by Anthony Trollope, Wordsworth Classics