Monday, August 28, 2017

(Mis)Takes


Things progressed as normal, as the bright sun sailed that day,
And then we watched in awe as Mister Moon got in the way,
And isn’t that a bit like life? Our plans flow normally,
Then all at once, something comes that we did not foresee . . .

Percy was an engineer, known for brains, not brawn,
Was fiddling with some microwaves from a magnetron.
When the chocolate in his pocket melted where it was,
His discovery? The microwave. To worldwide applause.

Play-Doh: It was made to clean the paper on the wall.
But poor results and sales had the business in free-fall.
But when kids started using it for their crafts and games,
It gave the struggling company some money and some fame.

Harry couldn’t get cyanoacrylate to work.
Instead of forming what he wished, it stuck. ‘Twas quite a quirk.
Then suddenly he realized that he’d made a breakthrough,
And what he had invented would be known as Super Glue.

Teflon wasn’t what Roy Plunkett started out to make,
He wanted different CFC’s, but he made a mistake.
Instead of gas, he found white flakes, intriguing little bits.
You’ll love it on your non-stick wear for when you’re frying grits.

Velcro was an accident, invented via dog.
When George took his pet hunting: picking burrs, the epilogue.
When closely studied, George could see the tiny little ‘hooks’.
He experimented and he won. It’s there in all the books.

So just because the sun is hidden for a tiny spell,
You simply do not have to fear that things aren’t going well.
And just ‘cause life is different than what you may have planned,
Sometimes, it is the unforeseen that truly makes it grand

Mondays do get knocked a lot,
With poetry, we three besought,
To try to make the week begin,
With gentle thoughts--perhaps a grin?
So Jenny and Delores, we,
Now post our poems for you to see.
And when you’ve read what we have brought,
Did we help? Or did we not . . .

And next week in our neighbourhood,
We'll tackle 'PARENTS'. It'll be good!

10 comments:

  1. So mny items brought about purely by accident...the sun didn't shine on their plans but it all worked out in the end.

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  2. It's amazing how many inventions were not heralded with "EUREKA!" but rather one of the following:
    "That's weird/funny..."
    "That wasn't supposed to happen..."
    "What's this?"
    And my personal favourite: "What the...?"

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  3. Genius! I love it! I struggled so hard with this theme but you've done a wonderful job with it, educating us in the bargain :)

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  4. So true. Carrying this message to our every day life will allow us to lighten up! We don't have to live fearful of things not going the way we want, but rather be confident that something even better more helpful may unfold.

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  5. I love all those "mistakes" and didn't know that's how they were invented. Love it!

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  6. Love the Velcro story, it's the best.

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  7. Life lessons that good can come out of mistakes. Love my dose of Monday poetry from On the Border!

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  8. Thinking of all the "mistakes" that turned into great inventions because someone was able to look at their mistake from a new angle. I knew about some of these mistakes, but not Play-Doh. Who knew? Thanks for the poetic lesson.

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  9. Loving this. And wondering how many human 'mistakes' (how I hate the term) also brought HUGE benefits.

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  10. I'm a big fan of useful inventions, even if they were mistakes first and kudos for the inventors who realised the new possibilities instead of lamenting the mistake.

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