By way of apology...often in the baseketball game...after a flub...a player might pat his chest and say, "My bad..."....and the game continues...
Over Breakfast a friend related this story..."My friend's kid looked at us while we were smoking cigarettes...and said, 'Cigarettes are bad'...and then said..."You're bad." "No no no..." we said..."we're not bad."
I dont remember how the conversation got to there...but from there I chimed in with a lecture on how little things, while not bad in the singular moment...in accumulated moments can be very bad indeed...and my friend agreed..."Yeah...like cancer."
Now... tonight PBS had 'Carrier' on...and a young sailor was reporting on being disciplined for drinking...and said something to the effect..."It's a small bad...but here small things have big importance."
Now the Fugitive is on...which is all about discipline too...the Fugitive trying to right a very big bad while being thought a bad person.
Oh...he lectures the gathered dinner crowd...
The officers disciplining the sailor said..something like...'They're not a bad sailor...that's not what this is about...we want everyone to understand the importance of shipboard discipline...make mistakes like this and you endanger...and let down.... your shipmates".
And later...this is good....on beginning pilots....'When they mess up...we try to give them some slack...after all...it costs a million dollars to train one...a few extra flights and they might get it....otherwise...they're washed out."
Well...those are all paraphrases...but the discipline of the warship...becomes a "culture"...and it's not surprising the varied work units become 'many as one'...and wearing the different colors they do glues each group together...it's almost like 'evolution at work'...
And needless to say, from the Captain on down, the orders received are the prevailing..order...without question.
And what I thought of all this 'little things adding up to big things...or thing..." is how difficult it was for John Muir to get across that the Valley was formed by Glaciers....that the slow movement over long period of time...wore away so much stone...it's hard to believe..but to see glacier polish at Cathedral Lake...well...it makes one a believer!
Small things over time can accumulate to make big changes.
And it's very hard to see how a small thing can be part of a large scale event...it's the old 'can't see the forest for the trees'....the disciplining of the sailor was to have them see the 'forest'...and the enthusiasm of individuals for their work unit..their group...is because they see the 'forest' and..well...what did the pilot say?...'We start to all think alike".
I'll have to think on this some more...with regard to so many movies that play on the idea that one individual goes against the grain...not for their own interest, but for the self same group that they've left..for it's interest. Is that right!...a difficult thought...for another time...I'll keep an eye out for a plot that illustrates...well... Hamlet does...but one more contemporary!
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St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Jan. 10, 1989: When he [Manute Bol] throws a bad pass, he'll say, "My bad" instead of "My fault," and now all the other players say the same thing.
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USS Augusta (CA-31)
"I have the greatest pride in commanding this fine ship and her 100% loyal Brotherhood of the Sea." --- Captain Chester W. Nimitz, Commanding Officer (1933-35)
"I have the greatest pride in commanding this fine ship and her 100% loyal Brotherhood of the Sea." --- Captain Chester W. Nimitz, Commanding Officer (1933-35)
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now...lemessee if I can find the crew pic...brb...pics from here:
The Carrier in the PBS show was named after Nimitz.
And here a fine story...
DavidDavid
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