Not seeing the wood for the trees

I thought I understood this so familiar, so well known, everyday expression, first learned in childhood, in Primary school in fact. We used to have tests, questions to answer, in our English exercise books. “What does 'A stitch in time saves nine' mean?” or “What does 'A rolling stone gathers no moss' mean?” Proverbs and sayings that were so much part of the currency of everyday speech, or at least what was regarded as part of correct, polite, “nice” speech in those days – oh how my teachers hated the word “nice”. “It does not mean 'pleasant' it means 'exact'!” they would parrot. Well, exactly what it meant in our mouths was 'pleasing' and we were sticking to it resolutely, come what may. 

And our speech was not always 'polite' or 'correct' and contained, from time to time, when we dared, when we were very, very sure that we were not being listened to, when we could risk using some of those words we heard on the lips of SOME adults; adults who did hard jobs; adults who came out of the pub drunk; adults who spiced what they said with lots of words beginning with F or B and who we were told not to listen to; adults who were 'hushed” at and from whose words our ears were covered. Adults like I'll, so called because on pay night he would come reeling up the road, staggering and shouting “I'll …” followed by lots of threats of what he would do to his poor wife, although we never quite knew what he would do as all the threats were in Welsh. Repute had it that she would greet him at the front door with a rolling pin, or a frying pan, and made very sure that he did not do what ever it was he was so threatening to do. The only words of I'll's that we knew were those very English words starting with F or B with which his tirade was peppered. The Welsh we did not know, but, Welsh having no swear words, he made great use of those English words that did as well; and we knew these were very bad words. Words that were so bad that instant punishment would follow if you were ever heard uttering them, even at a whisper. I was too scared ever to use them. Well, almost. I did once say “ruddy” which gained me instant retribution, and once I did say “bloody” which almost caused the sky to fall on me – well my mother's instant ire at any rate. Never again did I risk those words.

But to the subject. “Not seeing the wood for the trees”. I had always, at least since I first began to understand it, took it to mean 'Not seeing the woodland for the trees', that is taking the word 'wood' to refer to woodlands, coppices, stands of trees, forests; understanding the expression to mean not seeing the wider picture because of being so fixed on seeing the particular, the individual, the “trees”. I was a little taken aback when someone began taking about that so familiar expression, but meaning 'wood' to refer to the material from which the trees were made.

I was disorientated. How could this be? Had I spent an lifetime misunderstanding the words? Had my answer, given with such confidence at the age of ten as to what it meant had been quite wrong, quite focussed in an incorrect direction? How typical of me not to have quite got it right, not to have heard or understood it properly. No wonder I was sat at the back of the class with the other dimmies, those of us who were never going to be destined for the great heights of passing the Eleven-plus. Those elevated souls, the ones who were worth investing the time in on the part of our school, they sat at the front, those ones who might be destined for Grammar school and for an elevated life ever after. Our job was to be still, to be quiet and to be docile so as not to impede the progress of those elect. If we were lucky we might be able to read by the time we left school, or to count correctly, at least enough to measure and weigh, as our lot in life would be in workshop or field, or behind a counter or under-stairs. The understanding of the complex ideas embodied in 'seeing the wood from the trees' was, after all, beyond us, as my complete misunderstanding of the expression clearly demonstrated.

So – not seeing what something is made out of because of being too focussed on what it is. Now I have it, but a lifetime too late.