muhshoushuh uhnhahyd guhlah yehrp ahrevuh guh lousahnah

The fog disappears when the sun rises. Similarly, genuine knowledge will dissipate the clouds of ignorance.

Once I owned a soap factory in France. I had purchased and installed a line of soap making machines which included a mixer that could blend 500 pounds of soap pellets. The mixer had two large metal “arms” that turned in a circular motion and moved the pellets uniformly. It had two security safeguards to avoid anyone from being pulled into the mixer. There was an on-off button on a wall near the machine that could turn the machine if a second switch on the machine itself was pressed down. This arrangement was to ensure that the operator of the machine could only get it to work if both his hands were occupied outside the machine.

One of my workers who was a Tamil from Sri Lanka had a son who was visiting him during his summer break from college. The father asked me if I could give his son a temporary job so he could make some spending money. I agreed. I needed a man to load the soap mixer and add essential oils and other additives to the soap pellets before they were loaded into a three roll grinder that uniformly crushed the pellets and broke them down into strips that would be fed into a extruding machine that would turn the strips into compact soap blocks that would then be cut and molded.

I carefully instructed the young college student how to load the soap pellets into the mixer, add the oils and then how to follow all the precautions so as not to have an accident by which he might get injured. After a batch of 500 pounds, he was obliged to clean the inside arms of the machine. I showed and explained how it was imperative for him to have both his hands engaged in turning on the machine to move the inside arms to facilitate the cleaning. I warned him not to put tape or anything else to hold down the on-off button. I had seen other workers do such a foolish thing before which exposed them to a possible horrible accident because taping the wall button down to keep it in the “on” position would free up one hand of the worker to clean the machine and move the “metal arms” by pressing the “on” button on the machine itself. I very emphatically warned the college student not to do such a thing even though it made the task of cleaning the machine more awkward because he had to stop frequently to move the inside arms of the machine by placing both hands on the two on-off buttons.

The college student said he understood. I left him to do his work. About three hours later I heard the most heart-wrenching scream of my life. It came from the soap making area. I ran as fast as I could and when I arrived I saw the college student’s arm hopelessly mangled by the metal arms of the mixer. He did exactly what I told him not to do. He taped the on-off button on the wall down to the “on” position. This freed on of his hands to clean the machine while activating the on-off button on the machine to move the metal arms. He inadvertently got his hand up to his wrist mangled by one of the metal arms of the machine. He was screaming and writhing in pain. He father had already fainted. I tried not to panic. One of the workers had already stopped the machine quick enough so that his arm and body were not drawn into the machine. I carefully extricated his mangled hand from the machine and held the hand and arm to give a semblance that they were still connected. In fact, they were about 90% separated or torn apart. It seemed like his hand was only connected by some skin. We stopped the bleeding and rushed him to my car.

There was no time to call an ambulance. Fortunately, there was a large hospital about ten minutes from the factory. During the ride to the hospital he gained consciousness and looked at his hand and began to cry. He was very scared. He kept crying, “my hand, my hand, what is going to happen.” I reassured him that as soon as we arrive at the hospital, everything would be fine. The doctors will sew the hand back like before. He looked at me and fainted again. I tried my best not to look at his hand although I was holding it in place. I was on the verge of panic myself. My emotions were rushing wild thinking about the liabilities that would result from such an accident as well as the devastated father. I was worried about the future of the student as well.

When we arrived at the hospital, we were rushed into the emergency operating room immediately. There was no formal sign in as the situation was too dire and couldn’t wait. Some nurses strapped the student on a type of operating table and carefully extended his arm and mangled hand on a second table for examination. A group of three doctors entered the room immediately. I was emotionally distraught. The doctors examined the hand and began to make observations. They named different bones, tendons, blood vessels, muscles and discussed the extent of the damage in an objective way. I began to have a glimmer of relief from my emotional disarray because I realized that the doctors were not emotional like myself. They were objective and knowledgeable. They were assessing the damage and discussing their options for operating to save the hand.

I felt some relief. The nurses asked me to leave as the doctors would quickly prepare for an operation to save the student’s hand. As I walked out, I was impressed by the objectivity of the doctors. I realized how important knowledge and training to overcome the incapacity and bewilderment caused by ignorance and lack of know-how. The doctors had studied and trained for many years to be able to objectively looked at the student’s horrendously mangled hand. They dispassionately devised a plan to operate and save the hand from amputation.

The next day, I was briefed by the doctors that the operation lasted nine hours and was a tentative success. They expected that the student would keep his hand and perhaps enjoy up to 70% or more use of the hand for the rest of his life. I was amazed and deeply impressed.

The fog disappears when the sun rises or knowledge will dissipate the clouds of ignorance.