Chef Anthony Bourdain has hosted a great new series of short films on the passion and impressive craftsmanship that can lie behind amazing handmade items. In one episode, he talks to a tailor who mentions the thousand of stitches a customer will never be aware of. I could relate to that as an author. In editing my novels, I spend hours a day taking out or putting in punctuation marks, or a word, or a phrase. The reader will never know how many thousands of such decisions I've made in polishing the flow of language meant to evoke mental pictures and spiritual insights. But these choices will have done their work unseen and unknown. And each is important. Mastery, in the end, is all about the little details that may never be noticed by anyone other than the master. But they make for excellence.
The tailor episode link is below. I'd guess these films are less than 6 minutes each. You'll be treated by each to new insights.
