THE GATE KEEPERS
Each day on my way to work, I take a shortcut through a small gate that leads into a narrow alleyway that runs between two buildings. On that gate is a locking mechanism originally held in place by four nuts and bolts, although one of the bolts has fallen off.
Another one of the nuts is loose. Every morning when I come to work I tighten the nut, just finger tight. Which is probably why the nut somehow manages to come loose again, the result I suppose of people passing back and forth through the gate.
Over time, the tightening of that nut has become a part of my morning ritual, a little something I do to help maintain the gate. Today as I was tightening the nut I thought about how folks used to say if you take care of the small things then the big things will take care of themselves.
I suppose they meant that by keeping the nut tight I am helping to avert some larger problem, although I can't see what it could be since the gate is never locked to begin with. But then I think the old folks were getting at more than just doing preventive maintenance. It's about taking responsibility.
I've made myself responsible for tightening that nut every morning. I don't know if anyone else is doing the same thing, but I suspect they might be. Who knows, maybe there is a little community of gate-keepers, each of us tightening the nut, thinking it is our little project, unaware of the other people who also keep the nut tightened.
I don't know if that is true, but I kind of like thinking that it might be.
October 7, 2009
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