Sewing Needles and Lawn Tractors

Every spring we ponder one of the mystery's of life:  who buys all those riding lawn mowers?  We drive by the big box stores and there is an army of mowers lined up outside each one.  You would think that this is a purchase one only needs to make a very few times in their life.  And yet, it seems that hundreds - maybe thousands - are sold each year in our town.  Who buys them?  And where do they go?

I realized that I had a similar opinion about sewing needles.  I have quite a few hand sewing needles from various sources and thought that there was little need to buy any unless you happened to lose the ones you had or you needed a different type of needle: longer, shorter, different size eye or whatever.  And then the light bulb went off in my head!  I had a particularly frustrating hand sewing task to do and was having difficulty with my "cheater needle".  The thread would split or pull out of the eye or twist on itself.  My hand was aching from the task of trying to use it so I decided to try a conventional style needle.  I choose a new one out of an unopened package.  Imagine my surprise when the needle slide through the fabric like butter?!?!  And then it hit me - you buy a new needle because yours has become dull!  I know - obvious, silly, something I should have known.  But sometimes we don't realize how narrowed our thinking has become.  It was a simple answer that I never considered until I experienced it.

The mowers, on the other hand, remain a mystery.