Who is allowed to make mistakes?

Last night’s Game of Thrones episode had a glaring mistake. Someone had left a Starbucks coffee cup on a table in Winterfell. 
And some people were incensed about it. I’ll let you find those comments in your own Facebook feeds and online venues. Heads on spikes!

Would it be great if people caught all their errors? Sure.

Is this something that HBO film editors can now fix in an instant? Yes.

I hope they leave it.

Because we all make mistakes. And it serves as a reminder that even people at the top of their industry and best in their field don’t get everything right all the time. (Who knows, maybe the previous episode was so dark (lighting wise) because there were fast food wrappers all over the battlefield). 

Yesterday something slipped through the cracks at church. A mistake was made. (At least one. This is the only one that’s come to my attention so far).  I drink and I know things, and I still make mistakes. Maybe I could have noticed it before it happened, but I didn’t. Best I can do now is apologize and move on, making better notes in my calendar to remind people about stuff next year when it comes up again.

Some mistakes become criminal when there are cover ups or lies about them. I saw a story today that claims Boeing knew about problems with a warning light on the 737 Max airplane for a year before they told anyone. Story here.  Those mistakes kill people. But a coffee cup in Winterfell? Can we show some grace for this one?

We often seem to look for people to blame when mistakes happen. We rarely give people space to say, “my bad, let me fix it”. Fear cuts deeper than swords, maybe that’s why people don’t often acknowledge their mistakes.

Personally, I hope her coffee cup has her name spelled correctly. And written like this:

You can buy one here. (That was quick!)

As Tyrion said, “once you accept your flaws, no one can use them against you”.

(Edited to add: Here was HBO’s response to the mistake. “The latte that appeared in the episode was a mistake. Daenerys had ordered an herbal tea.” Well done, HBO.)