Keep it simple, stoopid 🤪
KISS – seems simple enough to remember. I mean, ‘simple’ is part of the acronym, right?! The Marine Corps spent a great deal of time, money, and effort pounding this into my brain-housing-group: Keep It Simple, Stupid. Short. Sweet. Elegant in its simplicity (there it is again!).
The military has no shortage of acronyms meant to guide every stage of life, from the basics of completing a logistics report to going over complicated plans of attack. Adding to this is a smörgåsbord of underlying principles and descriptive acronyms that help navigate it all. While I pride myself on my usually photostatic memory, I am horrified at the thought of Chesty Puller rolling over in his grave at my most recent gaff.
For the lack of a better descriptor, my actions in this story are a little more SNAFU than FUBAR.
Jen had issues…
To protect the innocent, we’ll change names and call the diver “Jen” and the dive leader “Dr. Deric Sand”.
Insert facepalm here. 🤦🏽♂️
”Jen” was experiencing issues with her mask leaking from the word go, and while the leaked slowed, nothing Doc Deric did fixed it. He checked all the seals and the skirt, cleaned everything, adjusted her hair band, swapped masks, and even put a smaller mouthpiece on her second stage, thinking her original was emphasizing her smile lines too much (which it was, but I digress).
Ultimately is was Doc’s Divemaster, we’ll call “Killer”, who pulled “Jen” aside and suggested that perhaps she was wearing her mask a bit too tight. Insert facepalm here. 🤦🏽♂️
And that was it. Problem fixed. Sure there was a little water that still trickled in when she smiled at her epic dives, but nothing like it had been.
The Moral of the Story
Keep It Simple, Stupid.
When you are faced with ANY problem, start with the easiest possible solution and try that before you go throwing all of your save-a-dive resources at it. I suppose another one could be, when in doubt, deploy your Divemaster. Sometimes the one in charge has too many things rolling around up there and just can’t see the simple solution.
