Rat Race

“Friends! Hear me! There is a world beyond the cage and the door is wide open!”

He looked down at his hands and noticed they were now furry little paws. He looked at his friends. Life-size hamsters surrounded him all running on different wheels of various shapes, sizes, and colors. Beside each wheel stood a digital clock measuring distance and time. With some algorithm unknown to any hamster, the clock calculated a number that the hamsters referred to as peeds. Each hamster was required to earn peeds.

A hamster of almond colored fur slowed her pace. She grew up with him and was curious.

“Friend, what is a cage?”

“It’s what all of our wheels are placed in.”

“How did you manage to get off of your wheel?”

She was warned against those who dared to speak from off their cage, but she heard him out because he was her friend.

“I fell off. I closed my eyes for just one second, I took a wrong step and the entire world turned upside down. The world as I knew it came to a screeching halt and for the first time in my life, I looked at the world around me and saw I was in a cage.”

She looked at him and sighed. “We’ve been warned all of our lives to tread carefully friend. 'Avoid those who fall off their wheels.' I encourage you to find yours again and get back to running.  You have probably lost a significant amount of peeds.”

She quickened her pace, frightened by the possibility that this distraction had taken her off track to reaching her destination. When she was younger, she tripped over her feet and stumbled off her wheel. All the hamsters stared at her in shock as she scurried back to her place vowing to never tumble off again.

Unconvinced, he started, "For the first time, I was able to look around.”

“What did you see?” She said without slowing. 

“For so long, my world was restricted to this wheel. I was content on this wheel running toward a destination that I could not see. My peeds climbing some days and staying stagnant on others with no reason or rhyme.”

“You know the peeds tells us how close we are to reaching our destination, friend.”

“Yes, but who sets the number? Has anyone ever reached it? Look, over there. He is the one who holds the highest number of peeds 1,907,182,013. He’s been running now for 55 years.”

“Yes, what is your point?”

“You have been running for 3 years friend.”

“Yes, and you see I am where I should be for a hamster my age. I have 100,000 peeds. Most my age only have 75,000.”

“But what do those peeds really mean? Once I was off the wheel, I looked at all of you and noticed something really strange.”

"What did you notice?” She said with a smirk. The only thing strange was that he was speaking to her from off his wheel.

“The first thing I noticed was that no two wheels are the same.” 

He squinted to try and read the expression of his friend's face.

She slowed.

“You mean, some hamsters run at different paces?”

“No, well yes they do, but no I mean that the wheels! They are different sizes, shapes, and colors. Some wheels make it easier to run fast but are small so not many points are earned. Some wheels turn slowly but are much larger so cover more distance accumulating peeds faster. The black wheels earn peeds fasters than the red ones. Some hamsters switch wheels after reaching a certain number of peeds because their wheel just stops.”

“The wheel just stops?”

“Yes, the wheel stops! The hamster hops off that wheel and onto the other without taking a moment to look around.”

“Friend, what has looking around done for you but slow you down from accumulating more peeds?”

He approached this question with caution, he realized that if not said with great care, he may frighten his friend and she may disregard him forever. He knew very well what they had been taught about those who fall off their wheel.

“Before I answer, can I ask you a question?”

“Of course, friend.”

“Are you happy?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, are you happy? Do you enjoy running on this wheel to earn peeds?”

She slowed. Not particularly. I would not say ‘enjoy’ but I do it because I want to be happy and earning peeds makes me happy.”

“How long until you reach enough peeds to be happy without having to earn more?”

“Well I hope to have about 1,000,000 points by the time I am 30. You know that when we reach 25 years old for everyone peed, we earn we are given two.”

“Do you ever wonder why the hamster with 1,907,182,013 peeds never stopped?”

“He must have set a higher goal.”

“Before I came to speak to you, I asked him what his goal was when he was your age.”

“What did he tell you?”

“He said he wanted to have 1,000,000 by 30.”

“Wow! Great minds think alike."

“He achieved 1,000,000 by 23 so he continued to raise the goal. He told me there is always room for improvement and earning more peeds. He said he had several different wheels to try. He does not ever plan to stop.”

“Well good for him! Why should he?”

“Because when I asked him why he wanted to keep earning more peeds, he said ‘to be happy.’ But, when I asked him again how much he needed to be happy, he said “the sky is the limit.”

“What is the sky?”

“I don’t know. When I asked, he told me he saw it once when he was younger, and he fell off the wheel.”

“NO WAY! He fell off his wheel?”

“Yes, shortly after reaching his goal of 1,000,000, his wheel got rusty, and he had to switch. Instead of getting on another wheel right away, he wandered around the cage.”

“What did he find?”

“He found a door.”

“A door?”

“Yea, he told me it led to a place that only few have the opportunity to explore.”

“So you are telling me he fell off his wheel to discover he was in a cage. He searched around this cage, to discover there was a door?”

“Yes.”

“And what did he do with this door?”

“He opened it of course.”

“What did he find?”

He stepped out briefly and sniffed around. He was approached by another hamster wearing a crown made of marigolds and they had a short conversation.

“Welcome!”

The hamster with the most peeds asked what the blue expanse was over his head.

“It’s the sky.”

The hamster with the highest peeds had seen all he needed to see and returned to the cage. Once back in the cage, he looked around at his friends who were all running on their wheels. He smiled and joined them once again.

After his encounter with the world outside the cage, his peed score began to quadruple. Other hamsters saw this and tried to follow his methods without success. Some left the cage never to return. Others returned but could no longer run.

“Wow, friend, that is a truly interesting story.”

“Yea, he had no reason to keep running, he has the most peeds in the entire cage, yet he still runs. I do not understand why.”

"Why do you need to understand why he runs?”

"Because if the hamster with the most peeds in the cage still is not satisfied, then maybe…”

“Maybe, what?”

“Maybe I should seek my happiness from outside the cage. I do not enjoy running on this hamster wheel, everyday accumulating peeds to satisfy a desire that someone else told me needed to be quenched. The truth is, I’m not thirsty.”

“You sound ridiculous. Are you okay?”

“Don’t you remember when we were younger back before we jumped on the hamster wheel? We would run around endless fields of marigolds and play all day. We would write stories and share our dreams. We would draw pictures and go swimming. We laughed all the time. Then, the evening before we turned 18, we went to sleep to wake up on these wheels. Without asking why or for how long we must, we began to run. And we’ve been running ever since. The next time I’d even heard of a marigold was from someone who had experienced life beyond the cage.”

“What are you saying, friend?”

“I'm saying that I do feel different. But this is good”

“What are you going to do?”

Without saying goodbye, he approached the door to the cage with caution and was surprised at what he saw. Hamsters of all colors and sizes sat just on the other side of the cage socializing, feasting, and more. One approached him with a crown of marigolds.

“Welcome! What is your name?”

“Ramus,” he remembered.

“I’m glad to see you have fallen off your wheel, Ramus. After realizing your error, do you not want to return?”

Ramus looked at his new friend and thought long and hard before answering.  He looked back at all of his friends still running on their own respective wheels. Round and round the wheels went. Some of his friends barely broke a sweat while others panted along. 

Ramus reached for his crown.