"Old Saying Shows Importance of the Connections" by Susan Pearl

"Hanging by a thread".


I remember so well how surprised I was when a strand of pearls I was wearing broke and the pearls scattered over the floor.  I made up my mind that I was going to pick up as many pearls as I could find.  I did just that and even swept the floor  with a broom and used a dust pan to get every pearl that was behind or under things too heavy to move.  I was happy to retrieve the pearls from the floor and put them in a glass jar.  My intention was to restring them, however, the task was more difficult than I had anticipated.  Such tiny and small openings to thread onto a string.

I hadn't realized how worn the string had become and that the pearls were "hanging by a thread".  It took hours upon hours to restring the pearls.

It is easy to take some things for granted, and not realize how fragile the connection is becoming.

When I was growing up the old saying "Hanging by a thread" was used to express a setting of barely hanging on. If a business was" hanging by a tread" it meant the business was about ready to go under.
At any rate the old saying expresses that when the connection is weak and ready to break it can cause a total disconnect.