Gear Up.

A small gear once got very arrogant. It looked about it- everywhere were big gears, cogs, levers, pulleys- every one of them busy at work. Most, if not all, worked smoothly and noiselessly, efficiently keeping things going. It was a nice factory.

Except for that small gear. The small gear thought: “All these other big cogs and gears- they think they’re so important! Nobody pays me any attention! They don’t know that if I stopped working today, this whole factory would come to a halt!”

So the small gear started creaking and groaning. It got noisier and noisier by the hour. One day, it decided it had had enough, and decided to not work at all. With a groan and a crash, some of the other gears and cogs that had been working smoothly for so long, came to a grinding halt. They groaned and grumbled for a few minutes. A few others tried to go on as usual, along with their momentum.

A worker in the factory identified the small gear as the source of the problem, and decided to give it some grease and polish. The gear was very happy with all the attention it received. It started working enthusiastically for a few days. But after a few days, the gear missed all the attention it had been having and it decided to groan, and moan, and stop working again.

The worker came, identified the gear, and took it out and replaced it.

The gear is in the bin, now, waiting to be recycled.

Picture: Greyscale Photography of Car Engine