You’ve heard the antidote to procrastination, right?
It’s “ready, fire, aim.”
That tactic can get you off your ass real quick, and it works great a lotta times.
But not always.
Do you remember a comedy where Mr. Bean sneezed on Whistler’s Mother, then further ruined the painting while wiping the snot off with a hankie?
Something similar has happened at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.
Seems that last year, the famous 3,300-year-old burial mask of the boy king Tutankhamen was damaged, probably while its glass case was being cleaned.
More specifically, the mask’s blue and gold braided beard was knocked off.
Since the museum is, like, the biggest friggin’ tourist attraction in Cairo, orders from on high were to fix the beard pronto.
So someone glued the beard back on with — yikes! — epoxy.
“Unfortunately,” one museum conservator said, “he used a very irreversible material — epoxy has a very high property for attaching and is used on metal or stone, but I think it wasn’t suitable for an outstanding object like Tutankhamen’s golden mask.
“The mask should have been taken to the conservation lab, but they were in a rush to get it displayed quickly again and used this quick drying, irreversible material.”
Oops.
Reports are that Tut’s mask now shows a gap of “transparent yellow” between the face and the beard that wasn’t there before. Worse yet, some epoxy dried on the mask and a spatula was used to remove it, leaving scratches.
Here’s a thought…
“Ready, fire, aim” is terrific advice to follow — as long as you’re fully satisfied that no irreparable harm will be done.
For gawd’s sake, always move forward.
But do it responsibly.
Here’s a good formula for getting stuff done, and done well…
