Thursday, November 27, 2014

The Return of Practice Standard #6

    Thanksgiving means many things...


Turkey and trimmings...

the Macy's parade...

Detroit Lions football...

and, at least at our house...


     I have documented the importance of Practice Standard 6, Attend to Precision, in a previous post.  In that case, the failure to demonstrate proficiency led to disastrous consequences.  Here, it's a different story.
    Early on in the movie, Santa comes to Toyland to check on his Christmas orders.  The irascible Toymaker asks Stan and Ollie, two of his bumbling employees, to bring out the wooden soldiers Santa has requested:

Stan, Ollie, and a wooden soldier.

Toymaker (turning to Santa): Isn't it wonderful?  It does everything but talk!

Santa: Wonderful, yes, but not what I ordered.

Toymaker: What do you mean?

Santa: I ordered 600 soldiers at 1 foot high!

Toymaker: What? (turning Stan and Ollie, disapprovingly): You took that order!  What was it?

Stan (sheepishly): I thought you said 100 soldiers at 6 foot high.

"Ho!  Ho!  Ho!  You got the order all wrong!  I couldn't give those things to my children to play with!


"Put it back in the box and get out of here!  You're through!"

   Lack of attention to precision leads to their getting fired from their jobs!   However, as we all know, the 100-strong regiment of 6 foot tall wooden soldiers save Toyland from the invading boogeymen.


The boogeymen are no match for the relentless wooden soldiers.  

     Is the lesson that sometimes our mistakes lead to providential outcomes?  I'll leave that up to you to decide.  In the meantime, Happy Thanksgiving everybody!






















2 comments:

  1. Love this. So much said in so few words. Brilliant.
    Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks Turtle. It was a fun post to put together.

    ReplyDelete