I Came Home Unannounced After Four Years Abroad and Found My Wife Starved and Shaved in the Backyard. My Mother Said She’d Brought It on Herself. I Didn’t Yell

Chapter 5 — Listen Before You Touch It

Here is the thing that kept me behind that fence, and it is the most important thing I know.

Four years of working around old, overloaded, failing machines had taught me a lesson that turned out to apply to a great deal more than metal.

When a machine starts to break down — when something deep in it begins to go wrong — the worst thing you can do is grab it and start yanking at parts.

You will hurt yourself, and you will do more damage, and never find the real fault.