T'was the night before Christmas and all through the house, not a creature was stirring --- except for two small gerbils in their owner's cage. They were restless and bored, tired of chewing on the same old cardboard day after day after day. So when no one was looking, they hopped out of their cage and went racing down the street. Soon they came to a large building that happened to be the local school house. They found a small crack under one of the doors and were able to squeeze their way through. Once inside, they went racing in and out of rooms and eventually found themselves in the music room. There they found boxes and boxes of sheet music. At last, something different to chew on! So they chewed and chewed and chewed until all the music was reduced to a pile of paper shavings in the middle of the floor.

After the holidays were over, the students returned to school and went to the music room to practice the music for their next concert. But alas, all the music had been chewed into shavings. So they all sat there not knowing what to do. Then, one of the students began to improvise a simple tune. Soon other students were joining in with their own creations, and before long they had combined their work into a completely new musical composition. It sounded so good they performed it at their next concert. And the audience went wild! Soon music groups all over were performing their piece. And critics marveled about how these students had been able to come up with new concepts and ideas and then used them to create a magnificent work of art.

But somewhere, two little gerbils knew that the real reason for the students creativity was that they were forced to think on their own after the gerbils had chewed up all their sheet music. It shows what even a gerbil can teach you when you give it something new to chew on.