When does something become routine in life? A permanent fixture which cannot be changed. How can the nuts and bolts of life in some capacities be altered with ease, whereas other adjustments are much more challenging?
Life at FWL is far from routine, ever. However, there are certain things which can be relied upon on a given day. The nuts of bolts of proceedings. [Confession time: I did look, very briefly, to see if there was a NUT* marrying a BOLT!] What would happen if someone took away one of the nuts in your day? Would you be able to cope without it?
The answer to that really depends upon what the ‘nut’ is. Most of us who drive would find it very difficult, for example, to suddenly be car-less. 99.9% of people over the age of six in First World countries would feel like their arm had been cut off if they had no electronic hand-held devices any more. Who could cope without a mobile for 24 hours? I can barely cope for 24 minutes!
It is easier to compensate or cope without certain ‘nuts’. In the literal sense though, if you bought a new chest of drawers, you’d need the right ‘nuts’ to put the darned thing together, or at least something pretty similar, otherwise construction may prove to be very tough! Genealogy is like that. It might not be possible to locate the precise document you are looking for, but another document might suffice to compensate for what is missing/not available (for whatever reason).
No matter what the mission, the nuts and bolts must be the right size to fit together and ensure that the construction is solid. If one bolt is the wrong size, the entire project could fail. If one nut is missing, the venture could collapse. But with everything connected properly, the plan will fly.
When was the last time you took stock of your nuts and bolts? Maybe now might be a good time…. No time like the present!
