Detail counts! I can especially verify this since I am one of those people who hate to fly! I would gladly drive anywhere, any distance, anytime, just to avoid flying. Perhaps it is due to my vertigo…but regardless, I do it under great stress. Yet, no other activity can better illustrate how important details are, and that details do count!
As a passenger on board an aircraft, a person expects the flight crew to check and even crosscheck all the gauges and switches in the cockpit. But if that were all that was done, we still cannot be assured something will not go wrong. It is extremely reassuring to me when I see the pilot go outside the plane, kick the tires, check the latches, the wings, the tiles of the plane’s outer covering, and various other odds and ends that are part of the plane’s exterior.
If a problem were to occur during the flight, gauges may not be able to alert the crew because those exterior items are not controlled by gauges. Thus, the pilot who takes it upon himself or herself to check those areas is paying attention to details…and affording the passengers one more level of safety. For that I am most grateful!
It is a matter of procedure anymore for a patient about to have surgery to have the spot marked which is about to be operated upon. This detail became a matter of standard procedure, I guess, after mistakes were made. Marking the correct leg or arm, etc. is a very important detail which can prevent harm or misfortune.
In general, however, many people refuse to pay attention to detail. I cringe each time I hear of a fatal crash in which the person did not fasten his seatbelt. That little detail could have saved the life. The same can be said for people who do not check the tread on their tires before a long trip. The excuse used most often for not doing such inspections is, “I just didn’t have the time!”
I guess the most poignant example of a small detail being ignored or not inspected properly in my lifetime would be the explosion of the “Challenger” rocket due to frost forming on a small “o” ring. I shall never forget the sight of that mishap on live TV as my classroom of students watched helplessly the loss of all those astronauts and our teacher in space.
No, a misplaced comma or forgotten period may not make the walls fall around us, but not being aware that the tiny things can be destructive can make such calamities possible. Even the Bible speaks of these small things in Song of Songs 2:15: “Catch for us the foxes, the little foxes that ruin the vineyards, our vineyards that are in bloom.” Note it is not the drought or the mighty flood or the hurricane force winds that destroy the vineyards…but the little foxes. Such is life: often little mistakes in detail cause large calamities in life.
Kay