Music and Cats

… is the subject line of an email I received at work today. Because it made me laugh out loud (rare for an email at work), and it’s wonderfully written, and I love its author, I’m sharing it with you.

A fable

Once upon a time, there was a lonely little chair. While it was quite stylish in its day, that day was long ago, and the little chair had been sold to a drafty used furniture store, where it sat among other furniture that was lonely.

Then, happily, the little chair was bought and brought to a nice warm house. [Yes, it’s this chair.] It was given pride of place in a lovely bedroom, whose yellow walls showed off the little chair’s upholstery well. At first the little chair was quite afraid of the three cats that lived in the nice warm house, because cats have claws that can harm lovely upholstered furniture like the little chair. But the new owners of the little chair loved it, and put protective covering over the chair, which taught the cats not to claw on it. This showed the little chair that its new owners were good and caring owners, the kind every little chair wants.

For many days the chair was happy. It had been bought as a present for a small woman who was a perfect fit for the little chair, and there is nothing a chair loves so much as a person who fits it. And the little chair was loved by the woman, who felt the same way about a chair that fit her.

But one day the woman and her husband went away on a trip. And when they came back, things changed for the little chair. Stuff was rudely piled upon it, and the woman never sat in it anymore. Clutter and more clutter came to live on the chair, as if it wasn’t a lovely little chair at all, but some kind of a dresser, or side table, or bed! The little chair was mortified, and ashamed.

At last, the chair couldn’t hide its feelings. One morning, the woman’s husband came into the bedroom and heard a quiet, weepy sound. “Oh, my!” said the man, who had not been focusing on his wife’s chair for some days. “What a sad little chair! Whatever will I do?”

After careful thinking, he decided that, though he didn’t have the time to sort through the clutter on the chair, that it would look much better spread out on the bed in his wife’s office, so he moved it there.

The little chair was so happy!

Will the little chair live happily ever after? We’ll have to see.

Did I mention that I love the man who sent me this email? I just looked across at the pile of books, papers, etc. on the guest bed in my office, and thought how lucky I am that he dealt with my cluttering up our bedroom by a) removing the clutter (but leaving it for me to deal with), and b) writing me a sweet story about it. And how clever he is! Now, each time I consider putting something other than myself into my little yellow chair, I’ll imagine it becoming sad, and weepy, and ashamed. It’s a lovely, very comfortable little chair, and I wouldn’t want that for it. I think I’ll go sit in it now.

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