Little Things

After nearly forty years together, my husband knows what will please me.

This pin that he found at the Rocky Mount Goodwill looks like a little sword with a stone missing from its hilt.



No matter the missing rhinestone. I can find a replacement easily enough. But, look closer: the pin isn’t a sword at all.

Do you see what it really is? A horseshoe nail? Because I love horses and all things connected with them, John knew I’d want the pin.

Seeing it reminds me of the old rhyme we learned as kids to remind us that small things have great consequences:

For want of a nail the shoe was lost.
For want of a shoe the horse was lost.
For want of a horse the rider was lost.
For want of a rider the battle was lost.
For want of a battle the kingdom was lost.
And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.

According to one source, “The earliest known written version of the rhyme is in John Gower's ‘Confesio Amantis’ dated approximately 1390.”

Benjamin Franklin included a version in Poor Richard’s Almanac: "For the want of a nail, the shoe was lost; for the want of a shoe the horse was lost; and for the want of a horse the rider was lost, being overtaken and slain by the enemy, all for the want of care about a horseshoe nail."

Little things mean a lot. Small problems, unattended, can become big problems. Sometimes we need reminders that we should indeed "sweat the small stuff."

And this pin wants a replacement rhinestone. A very small rhinestone.