Once I bought a spiffy new winter coat. It was black, double-breasted, with a large velvet hood. Very Russian-soldier kind of style, nice velvet buttons, very attractive.

Sadly, I forgot the important fact that buttons on inexpensive clothing always immediately fall off. Within two days, both of the buttons that held the coat together had disappeared into random parking lots. I still had the two decorative buttons of the double-breasted style, so I could move them to the fastening spots, but I refused. That would be ruining the soldier-style quality of the coat and would make it no fun to wear at all. I resolved to wait until I could buy four new buttons and replace all of them, so as to have a nice-looking coat again.

So for two weeks I walked around holding the coat closed with my hand. Being new to the area, I didn't know where the sewing stores were, so I went on a few wild goose chases. The first store was not only closed for the day, but actually sold "Fabrics for your Home". Two grocery stores and one cheap department store had nothing. I suffered. I complained. It was on my mind every day. The buttons. The buttons.

Finally one day I had to make a special long trip to the really-good pet food store. While I was there I spied a large sewing-fabric store across the parking lot. With indescribable joy I entered the sewing store. A giant wall of buttons was in front of me.

I perused the giant wall of buttons. There were many choices, too many. Time slipped by. Gem-like buttons? Buttons with medieval crests? Plain black buttons? Fifty-cent plastic buttons? Four dollar Austrian crystal buttons? Finally I laid out my top four button choices and began to debate their merits.

At that moment I happened to glance down at my coat. There was a buttonhole near the top of the coat, just below the hood. I stared. A buttonhole there? Why is there a buttonhole there? If there is a buttonhole, shouldn't there be a .... button?

With great excitement I felt under the coat's hood on the side opposite the buttonhole. A button! And on the other side! Another button! This coat had TWO hidden buttons under the hood, where I had never noticed them! During this entire two weeks I walked around holding this coat closed, when all I had to do was move the two buttons from under the hood! Unneccessary strife! Unneeded suffering!

Here's the moral of the story. When the buttons fell off I had a typical reaction: "Stupid cheap coat, they don't make them like they used to, now it's ruined." Did I examine the coat thoroughly? No. If I had examined the problem thoroughly, it would have disappeared. Instead it grew and grew.

When a problem appears, after you've finished with the knee-jerk reaction, stop. Step back. Consider the entire problem. Look for more buttons. Go over every square inch of the coat. Understand the whole problem before you draw any conclusions. Save yourself a lot of grief.

"I think that after some problem we always in retrospect wish we'd thought of or tried this or that. We feel bad; it should have been obvious, how blind we were, and what a waste. But just because the solution turns out to be closer at hand than we thought doesn't mean, I don't think, that we were foolish not to have seen it. No matter how hard we try there's going to be plenty we'll miss. You found the solution, and though theoretically it MIGHT have been much easier, you still solved it -- actually had several alternative solutions at that point (Did you buy any of those great buttons? I might have been tempted even though the immediate problem was solved....). It might have been easier, but one almost never goes directly to a solution. I'm reluctant to require of myself that I always find the solution quickly, even if it's close at hand. It's impossible, I think, and one needs a certain tolerance for one's own blindness."