Measure Twice, Cut Once

          Have you ever heard that expression?  It applies to a whole lot more than cutting a piece of wood.  It is a behavior that can be applied to most of the things you do in your life.  I’ll give you a personal example.  In my last blog “Common Sense” I quoted the cost of minting a penny.  I only measured once and then I cut the board.  Big mistake.
          One of my friends, who read my blog, sent me an email telling me that he used his common sense and checked out my figures on the web site I provided the link for.  Guess what he discovered, I had made an error.  A penny will cost 2.41 cents to make this year not $2.41.  Boy was I way off.  Speed-reading just doesn’t do it some of the time.
          I’m contemplating sending him a response telling him that it was a test to see just who would bother to check my facts. Or I could tell him that I am planning on using it on my application to apply for a job at MSNBC.  I heard that they don’t check their facts very well either.  Either way it was an error.  I apologize for the error.  It plays havoc with my theory of how to save money.  My plan would only save about 20 million using the correct figures.  Chicken feed.  Maybe I could get a job in the government.
          Back to measure twice.  It’s really a simple thing to do.  You make your measurement and check it once more before you cut the wood.  In theory you can catch your error before you ruin the piece of wood.  The only real problem is that most people will make the same mistake more than once.
And then there are other things you need to look out for.  There is the one-inch error.  That is when you get the fraction on the wrong side of the inch mark.  That results in your piece being exactly one inch short.  The simple fact is that sometimes we see something that isn’t what we are seeing.  Confused?  Don't worry, It gets better.
          I spent about thirty years running a home improvement business part time.  It was my second job.  I discovered I liked doing that kind of work back when I built my house.  Up until then the only thing that I had ever nailed together was a little cabinet that was used to hold my Atari game system.  Anybody remember those things?
          I read a book somewhere that said that if people knew how easy it was to build a house all the contractors would be out of business.  Yeah, right.  It wasn’t easy but it was fun.  It was on the job training.
          I had an old fellow helping me with the framing.  Actually, he was showing me how to do it.  His name was Rubin Mason.  He was in his seventies and had a wealth of knowledge to draw from.  I can still see him walking backwards on top of the 2X4 wall like some kind of circus performer.  We were putting up the roofing trusses.  On my best day I couldn’t do that.  If anyone knew the rule about measuring twice it was Rubin Mason.  In fact he didn’t even like using two different tape measures on the job.  He insisted that they produced different results.  He might have been right about that.
One of his boys was working with him.  He was about 15 at the time.  His name was (and still is) Will Mason.  As young as he was back then he knew all about measuring twice and cutting once.
          As I said in the beginning of this piece, measuring twice and cutting once is something that applies to many aspects of our lives.  Measuring the things we are about to do twice before we do them could save us some heartache.
          Talking about measuring, here is another one for you that you might have heard.  It is to “Take the measure of a man.”  It means a lot more than the size of his suit.  It’s something all you gals should try to do before you say yes to that first date, and frankly if he doesn’t measure up both times (measure twice girls) do the cutting thing.
          There are an awful lot of people that will tell you not to judge others.  You know, judge not lest you be judged.  I’m here to tell you that if you want a life relatively free of avoidable problems you had better learn to “take the measure” of those you associate with. That, in a word, is “judgment.”
There is a difference in judging others in the biblical sense and judging others in order to avoid some real pitfalls in life.  My mother used to tell me that if I hung around with the wrong crowd I’d get in trouble.  That’s where measuring twice came in.

           There are many things in life that just happen without warning and are simply unavoidable.  However, there are a larger number of things that happen to us because of decisions we have made.   Those are the places we need to measure twice.  We need to do our research and make the right choices.  There are pitfalls in making judgments about the people around us.  We need to look out for those.  On that particular note there is an interesting video about judging others you might be interested in watching.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbFiB7oiQs4&list=PL4E784EC0770935C0&index=2&feature=plpp_video
          I know a young woman that spent some time taking the measure of someone she thought she was going to marry.  She had been going with this young man for many years before she actually thought about how he measured up to what she wanted in a husband.  It was a very hard thing to do but when she saw that there were important things missing in the relationship she walked away.
          When she finally settled on the man that “measured up” it set the course of her life on a different path.  After several years of marriage and a few kids later she says with complete honesty that there is nothing about her husband that she doesn’t like.  She chose wisely.
          How many of us can say the same?  If you are still breathing it isn’t too late to learn how to measure twice before you cut the path for the rest of your life.
          So here is what we do.  We choose wisely.  How do we do that?  That part is more difficult.  If I were an expert it would be easy for me to answer that question.  But you see at nearly 64 I am still learning myself.  I do know this, however, we need to surround ourselves with the things that lift us up, not those things (or people for that matter) that bring us down.
          Be choosy in who you pick for your friends.  Take their measure at least twice before you decide on whom they will be.  Develop a set of basic core values and stand by them.
          If you are looking for a spouse look in the right places.  When I was in the Navy I spent a lot of time in bars all around the world.  I know from experience that quality marriage material does not regularly populate those places.
          Here is the hardest thing of all: You must always try to do the right thing.  Just knowing what is right is not enough.  You have to choose the right and do it.  Measure twice my friend and cut just once.
          That's it for now.  Keep that tape measure in your hand and don't be afraid to use it!  Hug your wife and kiss your kids before you go to bed and don't forget to pet the dog.