Many years ago I
worked for a railroad in the central offices in Denver. I was in charge of what
is called head-end traffic. That was in the days when nearly everyone rode
passenger trains. One morning I received a call from my counterpart in Newark,
New Jersey. He said, “Train number such-and-such has arrived, but it has no
baggage car. Somewhere, 300 passengers have lost their baggage, and they are
mad.”
I went
immediately to work to find out where it may have gone. I found it had been
properly loaded and properly trained in Oakland, California. It had been moved
to our railroad in Salt Lake City, been carried to Denver, down to Pueblo, put
on another line, and moved to St. Louis. There it was to be handled by another
railroad which would take it to Newark, New Jersey. But some thoughtless
switchman in the St. Louis yards moved a small piece of steel just three
inches, a switch point, then pulled the lever to uncouple the car. We
discovered that a baggage car that belonged in Newark, New Jersey, was in fact
in New Orleans, Louisiana—1,500 miles from its destination. Just the three-inch
movement of the switch in the St. Louis yard by a careless employee had started
it on the wrong track, and the distance from its true destination increased
dramatically. That is the way it is with our lives. Instead of following a
steady course, we are pulled by some mistaken idea in another direction. The
movement away from our original destination may be ever so small, but, if
continued, that very small movement becomes a great gap and we find ourselves
far from where we intended to go. –
Gordon B. Hinkley.
