Blog 284 – 04.29.2016

The English language brims with little expressions like today’s title that are just so full of meaning. First the Devil in the reference is not actually referring to Lucifer or even one of his lieutenants but figuratively to the difficulty of getting things right. As I compose this piece I am sitting in a government office for the second time to talk to someone about setting something right that happened over a year ago.

Because someone filed a fraudulent tax return in my name for 2014 my Social Security records picked up an incorrect detail that has taken over a year to resolve. No, the cheats did not get any money but they did cause a lot of trouble. Isn’t that the way of not taking care of the details of life, it not only causes trouble for you but others as well. There was a sweet song in the 1950’s that said, “Little Things Mean A Lot.”

There is a poem that illustrates the importance of details better than anything else I can think of. It goes something like this:

For lack of a nail
The shoe was lost.
For lack of a shoe
The horse was lost.

For lack of a horse
The rider was lost.
For lack of a rider
The message was lost.

For lack of a message
The battle was lost.
For lack of a battle
The war was lost.

So the war was lost because of a horseshoe nail not being replaced in a timely manner. Little things done or left undone have consequences. I remind myself of that every time I sit down to write. even a single word said or left unsaid could perhaps have great consequence to someone.

You friend and fellow traveler,
David White