A cut stays a cut if you leave it alone.
We rarely leave anything alone.
We pick at the cut.
Run the tape back until it means something worse.
The original thing had a cost.
Real and fixed.
The wound becomes a bleed.
The bleed becomes something structural.
What's running the numbers now is interest.
It doesn't care what started it.
Most circumstances are survivable.
Our response to them often isn't.
