Saturday, September 17, 2005

The tyranny of small things

In virtually every arena of life, getting the big things right is actually fairly easy. Huge mistakes are pretty rare, largely because the consequences are so bad. Therefore, people tend not to reverse along the motorway. They don't hire totally unqualified people for difficult and skilled jobs. Most people know not to murder their neighbours.

However, it is the little things that cause problems. There are so many of them, individually unimportant, that it is impossible to tick all the boxes. And small problems have a habit of escalating. Ignore a small problem with your car and you'll be fine - until that problem causes something else to go wrong. Fail to deal with an unpaid bill promptly, and the interest starts to eat you alive.

This may well be why relationships are so hard. If there is a huge flaw in the relationship, it will either end the relationship or be dealt with promptly. However, each person carries around a whole host of 'small things', any of which can annoy the other (eg the whole toilet seat thing). On a good day, these issues get ignored. However, on a bad day, the people are less charitable, one small thing leads to another, the problem escalates, and the whole thing implodes.

Or, just possibly, not.

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