I picked up a copy of "Who Moved My Cheese?" and liked it so much I read it twice. Like all of Spencer Johnson's books, this latest one is deceptively simple. It is a charming parable that takes only an hour to read. You read it, think about it, mull it over and decide to read it again. The second reading is then better than the first. This kind of simplicity hides profound insights.

The insights in "Who Moved My Cheese?" are valid. The main one is that no matter who you are, you don't like change. Oh, some of us cope with it fairly well, but the truth remains that we all wish we didn't have to undergo change.

We all find the status quo acceptable, provided we have our basic necessities met and have whatever else we value most in life. It could be a good job, a fulfilling relationship, enough money, the right possessions, good health or a satisfying spiritual or religious life. Some people are fortunate and have all of these things.

In being complacent, we're like the four characters at the beginning of "Who Moved My Cheese?" We're like Sniff and Scurry, the two mice in the maze. And we're also like Hem and Haw, the two human characters in the story who are only the size of the mice and are called little people.

When their story begins, all four of these characters are happy. Every day, they know where to go in the maze to get their cheese. Life is easy. Life is fulfilling. They are all on cloud nine, all on Easy Street.

All they have to do each day is get up whenever they like and go to Cheese Station C and everything they need is right there, in whatever quantity they want.

Then one day they go to Cheese Station C and things are kaput. Their seemingly endless supply of cheese is gone.

The mice Sniff and Scurry react quickly and instinctively. Sniff takes a big whiff of the air and nods in one direction. Then he and Scurry pull on the running shoes they have always carried around their necks for just such an emergency and run off into the maze in the direction Sniff indicated. They know they have to find a new supply of cheese.

Not so for Hem and Haw. They continue their old routine. Each day they go to Cheese Station C only to find their cheese has been moved. They are afraid to venture forth in the maze and find a new source of cheese. Hem complains and complains. Finally Haw asks him where they put their running shoes. It takes forever to find them because they had put everything away, thinking they were set for life.

When Haw finds his running shoes and starts to put them on, Hem says, "You're not really going out into the maze again, are you? Why don't you just wait here with me until they put the cheese back?"

"Because, you just don't get it," Haw says. "I didn't want to see it either, but now I realize they're never going to put yesterday's cheese back. It's time to find new cheese."

Haw doesn't want to go out into the maze either, but he knows he must. He has to overcome his fears and conquer his doubts. He wants to help Hem, so he writes on the wall the first of his many insights: "IF YOU DO NOT CHANGE, YOU CAN BECOME EXTINCT."

Haw sets off in the maze and leaves a trail of messages for Hem to follow, messages like the first insight above. They are "The Handwriting on the Wall."

Haw, eventually, after much trial and error, finds new cheese. Not only is the cheese he finds new, it is better than the old cheese. Like Sniff and Scurry, Hem has learned to keep things simple and to move with the cheese.

Mackay's Moral: Adapt, don't hem and haw.