What Do You Do With A Tangled Mess?

Do you remember the first time you flew a kite?

The first kite I ever flew was one I built when I was in cub scouts.

I took a brown paper bag and some wooden dowels and some string.

First, I created a cross with dowels.

Next, I created a diamond shape that formed the outer edge of my kite.

I placed the cross made from the dowels in the middle of the diamond.

The wooden dowels were the skeleton of my kite.

Next, I wrapped the brown paper bag around the kite frame made from wooden dowels.

Finally, I attached the string to kite, and I was ready to see my creation fly high into the sky.

At first, there was not enough wind.

Then the wind picked up, and my kite was airborne.

Little by little, I gave up more string from my kite spindle, and the kite flew higher into the sky.

Finally, I got to the end of the string, and my kite could not fly any higher.

It was a wonderful time as I threw my eyes up towards the heavens to see my kite fly.

I felt so accomplished with my kite flying prowess.

Earlier this spring, I took my son Levi and daughter Claire with me to fly kites.

We had a glorious time.

All three of us had kites, and we each of us flew our kites as high as our strings would allow.

Then the winds died down, and our kites came tumbling toward the ground.

All that sting that had been straight as an arrow ended up as a tangled mess.

I started to untangle the string.

I saw it as a challenge.

If I just spend enough time with this chaos of string, I would be able to get it untangled for another day of kite flying delight.

I saw it as my duty.

I thought about how much fun it would be to use the string to fly the kites again with my children.

I made some progress with the untangling.

I saw it as a puzzle.

With each moment, I knew I was getting closer to a knot-free kite string.

Then I thought for a moment.

Was it really worth spending all this time untangling the string?

After all, I could get a new spindle of kite string for just five dollars?

How many hours would it take me to get out of this untangled mess?

Was it really a good use of my time to solve the riddle of untangling this mess?

No was the answer I came to moments later.

Sure, it will cost me another five dollars to get a new spindle, but the time to get the string untangled will cost me much more.

Sometimes it’s better to cut your losses and start over from scratch.