Factory Seconds

Serious flaws in manufacturing result in a product that's unusable, but smaller flaws may only represent an inconvenience.

— Fred Decker

When I was a kid, I was fascinated by factory seconds, those flawed products sold at discount.

They represented to me a brute fact of life: namely, that adults would do anything for profit, even if they looked foolish and incompetent.

To err is human, I understood; but to sell errors was—cheesy.

Six decades later, I'm less critical of manufacturers and retailers who monetize boo-boos. After all, caveat emptor.

I also accept another brute fact of life: we're all ourselves factory seconds.

Something went seriously amiss in quality control the day they released each of us into the world.

And when someone neglects or disappoints or crosses me, I try to take a deep breath and remind myself, "he's flawed, yes; but his flaws only represent an inconvenience."