When it rains it pours, right? The best laid plans have a way of going berzerk. You can have the belief you are in control and have planned well, only to be diverted by the smallest of things. Like the lion with a thorn in his paw, it does not take anything massive or catastrophic to abort a mission. A simple, plastic “O-ring” failing can result in a space shuttle exploding. When I was little, our yard had 2 extremely tall Australian pine trees. These tress have tiny little pine cones the size of a gum ball. If we were skateboarding down the sidewalk and hit one of these, we would go flying, skinning our hands and knees. They also hurt like hell to step on barefooted.
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As I have aged, I am quite a tenderfoot. When we were little, we were often barefoot all day long. In the summer, I remember my mom making us wash our feet before going to bed. The soles of our feet would be pitch black from the black tar driveways. It is rare to see barefooted kids nowadays.
So, I will do a proverbial sweeping of the sidewalk, removing the little pinecones. I will put on knee pads and wrist guards and helmets. I will wear shoes (and tie the laces), because I don’t have the resiliency for my youth. They call this wisdom, right?