There really is a basis for the old saying, “Too many will go to the fire.” As a blacksmith, I have experienced the results of not heeding this warning, “up close and personal.”
When I help out at the local History Center during “Farm Days,” school buses full of anxious faces are brought to our forge. These days, most kids have no idea what a blacksmith does, so I usually explain the concept this way. “When it’s hot, you can do anything with iron that you can do with clay, … except touch it.”
In the “old days”, before blacksmiths had thermometers, they found that the color of iron changes with temperature. It starts with “black” heat (about 800 degrees F, and hot enough to burn), and progresses through the color spectrum of blue-purple-red-orange-yellow and peaks at “white” welding heat. ” (+2000 degrees F, just before it burns). At the right temperature, the metal becomes very flexible (about 1300 degrees F, orange-yellow).
When you work on metal (iron/steel) in a forge, you basically place cold metal rods in the forge fire and wait for them to heat up to a flexible temperature. Then, “strike while the iron is hot.” (Another tried and true blacksmithing proverb.)
If you try to work the metal at a lower temperature, you end up having to hit twice as hard to do half the work. On the other hand, if you let the metal get too hot, it will simply melt and/or disintegrate.
The previous sentence refers to the problem of putting too many rods in the fire, so that you cannot keep track of what stage of heating each piece is at. You can only work so many pieces, before you start burning some and wasting your resources. There is always an optimal amount of work that you can handle at any given time and still achieve your goal.
This adage is aptly apparent these days, referring to overloading our schedules with too much to get done in the first place. We start our days with “aspirations of greatness”, certain that we can perform superhuman tasks, like that Japanese boy in “Heroes” who can bend time. If we keep moving… we will achieve everything! (The accident division of the insurance industry could probably give you some good statistics on this approach.)
I have a friend who is constantly on the move, … physically and mentally. After spending the day with her (and based on the exhaustion I experienced trying to keep up), I was surprised at the end of the day how much of her original “to do” list…wasn’t done. However, she managed to break 2 glasses, forget the clothes in the washing machine, and add 5 or 6 other things to her ever-growing list.
She was full of energy and good intentions in the morning, but somewhere she lost track of her “line of sight.” Detours and delays created frustration in her already overloaded system. (Besides her cut on her finger, from using a kitchen knife as a screwdriver). After seeing her fight, I remembered this old forging phrase.
In blacksmithing terms, it’s the equivalent of going out in the morning to make some horseshoes. You realize you have to stop for a punch, try to remember to ask for more coal, ask several farmers to pick up the tools you were fixing for them (with appropriate chitchat)… and end your day with about half your iron ruined (still have a barefoot equine).
If you overload your schedule, even if it’s based on need, you’ll find that it doesn’t really accomplish your purpose. You need to base your day on achievable goals and build in some flexibility for when the world decides to interfere with your plans (because it always will). Remember, … “Don’t put too many, they will go to your fire!”.