Let's say you have a concert to go to tonight. It's at a place you're unfamiliar with. The thought "Maybe I should print out a map" crosses your mind for a second before being replaced by "Nah, I know the area. I'll be fine."
You leave work early and you rush to the nearest station to the concert hall. You burst out of the subway exit only to find that the surrounding streets look very different to how you remember them. In fact, you don't recognize your surroundings at all.
You panic. You run back and forth along the same stretch of pavement. You're going to miss the first part of the concert! You kick yourself for not taking the time to print out that map.
This is the kind of situation that this week's proverb is warning us about. If you have a small hole in your gloves, you better not leave it. That hole is just going to get bigger and bigger, and some cold night in February, your fingers are going to freeze off because of that hole. But if you take the time to fix that hole early on, you won't have that problem in February.
Sadly, I'm the sort of person who has her fingers frozen off. I know you don't believe me. You think I'm the sort of efficientgal who does everything straight away. Well, you're wrong. Because I'm lazy. I can't seem to get around to doing even the simplest of tasks.
Recently, I had a reminder of this. It was the day before I was to give a lecture. I woke up with a sharp pain in my back. I could barely move. I couldn't even make it to the bathroom on my own. I thought if I'd leave it, I'd get better. But it only got worse.
The thing is, I've been having this problem on and off for years. My brother trains athletes, and in the past, I've asked him what the problem is. He told me it's because I'm made up of bone and fat. I have no muscle. That's why I'm having these back problems, and if I do nothing about it, sometime in the future I won't even be able to walk.
He recommended that I do some easy five-minute stretches. Every time I ask him about my back, he recommends the same stretches. Have I done them? Er ... no.
And that morning, as I lay there with that pain in my back, I thought to myself: "I should have listened to my brother. I could have fixed this problem a lot earlier. If I had, I wouldn't be in this state."
Q1 Before going to a concert in an unfamiliar area you should:
A1) Check to see if your ticket is in your bag.
A2) Print out a map of the location.
A3) Wear sneakers instead of heels.
正解： A2) Print out a map of the location.
Q2 According to her brother, Kana could have prevented her backache by:
A1) Doing stretches.
A2) Doing lectures.
A3) Lying in bed.
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