![\"wheels](\"https:\/\/foxbatpilot.files.wordpress.com\/2015\/04\/wheels-fall-off1.jpg\")
Here’s a story my grandfather once told me.<\/p>\nHere’s a story my grandfather once told me.<\/p>\n
Once upon a time, a man and a few of his friends decided they could build a new kind of vehicle. They had some knowledge and experience of similar\u00a0vehicles and a lot of determination to make their idea\u00a0work. They decided to call\u00a0their new vehicle after a bird<\/a>.<\/p>\n They progressed very well for a time but then hit a stumbling block – the people making the wheels for them went broke and couldn’t supply what they’d promised. So the man and his friends looked around for someone else to make their wheels. But all the others were too\u00a0expensive – the man and his friends wanted to make their new vehicle as affordable as possible. So they decided to make\u00a0their own wheels.<\/p>\n Right from the start, this proved much more difficult than they’d imagined. Although their vehicles were selling quite well – mainly because they were cheap – the wheels had started\u00a0falling off a fair number. Although it appeared\u00a0nobody had yet been hurt, it was nevertheless a bit of an embarrassment to the man and his friends. To try and compensate, they offered to supply free new wheels to replace those which fell off and even travelled miles to fix wheel-less\u00a0vehicles themselves.<\/p>\n They tried tinkering with the design but whatever they did, the wheels\u00a0kept falling off. Other people came along and suggested different ideas, which might work better. But\u00a0they spurned new\u00a0ideas, because by now this\u00a0rather inflexible\u00a0man and his friends\u00a0had spent a lot of time and effort trying to convince\u00a0everyone (including probably themselves) there was really nothing wrong with their wheels. It was the drivers or mechanics who were somehow damaging them by going too fast, too far or not oiling them correctly.<\/p>\n Time went on and still the wheels kept falling off. Until one day some\u00a0policemen with big sticks\u00a0came along and told the man and his friends that one way or another, the wheels had to stop falling off or they would not be allowed to sell their vehicles\u00a0any more. Of course, the man and his friends argued arrogantly\u00a0that it wasn’t their wheels that were\u00a0the problem, it was the\u00a0idiots using them in the wrong way and not looking after them properly. ‘After all’, they said, ‘nobody’s actually been killed when our wheels fell off”. As it actually turned out, this might not have been quite true and certainly some people had been hurt. ‘And our vehicle is very strong’, they said, ‘ so even when\u00a0the wheels do fall off, the driver and passenger have\u00a0a good chance of survival’. ‘Not good enough’, said the policemen, ‘you fix them, or else!’.<\/p>\n A short while later,\u00a0soon after they\u00a0had been repaired\u00a0by the man and his friends, the wheels fell right off a vehicle, which then crashed into a\u00a0tree – thankfully, without hurting anyone. The man (whose friends by now were disappearing) phoned the owner and said: ‘I’m sorry about the wheels but you must be very glad\u00a0you bought one of my strong vehicles and as a result no-one was hurt’. The owner told all his friends what the man had said and they all vowed\u00a0they’d never ever\u00a0buy one of these vehicles again.<\/p>\n ‘Which just goes to show’, (said my grandfather) ‘arrogant people<\/a> only breed sadness\u00a0for themselves’. That is, until the wheels fall off….<\/p>\n Or, as my grandson would say: ‘I’m soooo over this, can we go flying now?’.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Here’s a story my grandfather once told me. Once upon a time, a man and a few of his friends decided they could build a new kind of vehicle. They had some knowledge and experience of similar\u00a0vehicles and a lot … Continue reading