Carpet Tale

            Once upon a time, there was a carpet who was tired of being a carpet. He was tired of being stepped on every day.  In the morning, the children of the family would jump out of bed upon him, and run up the stairs upon him, smashing him down before he was even awake!

            The parents would step out of bed upon him, and squash him, and slide their slippers across him on their way to get breakfast.  The baby would drool all over him, and everybody spilled food on him, especially the children.

            He was feeling very unappreciated and grouchy.  He wanted to roll up and take a vacation, because nobody ever noticed how nice it was to have him there on the floor for them.

            What he did like was when someone came with a vacuum, to give him a massage, and clean away the dust and dirt from his fibers.  That part was nice.  He’d like that every day, if he could have it.

            One night, he was talking to the couch.

            “Doesn’t it bother you to have the family spill on you and jump on your cushions?” he asked.

            “Well,” said the couch, comfortably, “If they want, they can always look for another couch.  Or they might move me to another house. I don’t want that. I like it the way it is now.”

            “You mean, they might look for a different carpet? Or they might move away?”

            “We are just furnishings. We are things. We are not people. People can choose what they do.  We cannot.  These people are actually really nice, normal people. Besides that, they’re the only people we have.  You can choose to be miserable, or you can choose to enjoy giving them comfort for their feet from the hard floor.  You can choose to make their lives better.”

            “I hadn't thought about that,” said the carpet.

            The next morning, when the children jumped out of bed, the carpet softened their steps as they ran up the stairs.

            As the parents slid across the carpet in their slippers, he welcomed their coming, and made sure they did not slip.  Later that day, he didn’t even mind when the baby drooled on him, and the children spilled.  And he especially enjoyed when the mother ran the vacuum over him!

            He understands he cannot change anything or anyone around him but himself. But he can change only how he thinks about the world.  He knows now that he likes the people he is with, and things are better than he'd realized.  
      That makes him as happy as any carpet can be.  Which is pretty good, don't you think?