Read the Fine Print

 

Read the Fine Print

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The small print is put in place for a good reason. Sometimes it is more important than the big print. Fine print has a purpose. Read it. Somebody must read the fine print.

I think the fine print should be at the top, not the bottom. Unfortunately, I too often neglect to even see it.

A silly, unimportant, example is a recent puzzle I ordered. I was ordering five jigsaw puzzles. That was my intention. Five puzzles to keep me busy for many months because I don’t binge on puzzles. They are for my occasional pleasure.

One puzzle depicts a beautiful scenic garden gazebo filled with colorful bamboo furniture, surrounded by lush tropical plants, alive with bursts of color, detail to keep one, well, puzzled.

However, I failed to read the fine print and even missed the big print. 1,000-piece puzzles are best for me. They keep me occupied for days. My project table is the perfect work size for 1,000 piecers.

I set my fresh puzzles in a pile for “later”. When I got a “round tuit” and opened the box,  Whoa! Wait a minute. This is a 300 piece puzzle. How did that happen?

I had not even seen the big print. I saw beauty and dumped it into my cart, and hang the details. To make my puzzling mistake more interesting, I worked it from the center out, edge pieces last.

I’d like to blame my family. We actually, usually, do read the instructions though. It’s what we do with them that changes things. Often, often, I read the directions and puzzle through them for a while, no hurry. Then I figure out a different or better or easier way to assemble the widget or bake the cake. It is a troublesome failing.

Back in high school Algebra was my bugaboo. I would get the right answers; we had to show our work, of course. I got marked down for doing it my way. I could not wrap my head around why that mattered. Stubborn got in my way.

My friend Denise told me she just sewed a shirt for her husband but she made a mistake. “He doesn’t know, won’t see it, and I’m not telling,” she said.

I’m doing all my sewing without patterns or instructions, so I’m quite familiar with getting to a roadblock, having to back track, pulling out stitches all the way. Sit with it, let it tell me how to fix it. I told Denise, “That is why God invented gussets.” I am very good with creative gussets.

I’ve often wished people came with an instruction manual. In a way, I guess, we do. But to read each diffferent how-it-works instructions, we, the reader, must slow down, listen very carefully to the other person, not so much the words, but the fine print behind the words. 

Jerry, a long-time family friend, contacted me the other day. Jerry just celebrated his 36^th Sobriety birthday. We were commiserating about my son, who went off the rails a couple years ago and recently clawed his way into a treatment facility.

Both of us had read the fine print. We saw the red flags waving before my son’s problems became visible. We heard the warning bells and screaming sirens.

Unfortunately, I can’t fix his problems with my gussets. I can only fix my own problems. Sometimes. That’s my full-time job. My son must find his own directions.

Sis said, “You can’t make gravy with a tire iron and tube patch. All we want is to be loved and to love. We just go about trying to find love in wonky ways. Some of us read the instruction manuals in a foreign language.” Amen, I say.

Jim said, “Everybody is getting along the best they can with what they’ve got.” (See above about foreign language.)

Jerry and I reminisced about when a group of us gathered Friday nights to play pinochle. None of us were rich. We had good times.

In closing, I told Jerry along with those of you who play pinochle, “Hearts are trump and I’m shooting the moon.”

Lest I forget. It is best to read the fine print. Read it first.

Sondra Ashton

HWC: Looking out my back door

April 3, 2025

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________