My partner has a 2007 hard-top convertible.
The other day when he pushed the button to bring down the roof, he heard an almighty crack. The normally graceful Transformer-like mechanism had come to a sudden and dramatic halt in midair.
He came home very disappointed that it happened “today”. Not helped by the fact that he was showing it to a prospective buyer at the time…
A thought came to me. This may not have happened “today”. It’s probably been on its way since 2007.
How many times has that roof gone up and down in the last 15 years? Probably hundreds and hundreds of times. This break today is more likely the result of wear and tear, over many years.
A few days later I went to the dentist for tooth pain. When the X-rays showed nothing, my dentist suggested a small crack could have developed. He said, “After all, that tooth has been in your mouth since you were six”.
I’m not going to reveal my age but suffice it to say I’m a teeny bit older than the convertible. My tooth cracking is not the result of an event that happened a few days ago, but of many years of eating all manner of things, not to mention the occasional season of teeth grinding…
Things break over time.
I think that’s helpful to remember.
A bit like a sculptor working away at a slab of stone. It’s not the last hit that breaks a piece away, but all tapping that went on before.
Photo by Martin Zdrazil on Unsplash – transformer with roof down
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