A great painting comes alive in a profound way when you let it, and allows you experience the depth of what goes on underneath the everyday routine we mistake as life.
She performed her rope, clubs and ribbon routines without major mistakes, but she received scores lower than her average at international competitions throughout the year.
Gold medals were being given to safe routines that limited mistakes, while gymnasts who pushed the sport's boundaries received no reward.
In the accompanying slide shows, 14 self-made members of the Forbes 400 gave us an exclusive peek at their childhoods, dreams, mistakes, routines and motivations.
Liukin's routine was without big mistakes, but her performance was not good enough to clinch her second gold medal.
Eventually that spark will fizzle out and the "magic couple" will be trapped in the same, drab routine decided by stupid mistakes.
"As a young team, it's just about getting better and doing the little things, not making mistakes on routine plays.
For most teams, the first-week foibles are tolerable because, just as the lack of preparation created jarring mistakes, the routine of the season is likely to smooth out the rough edges.
Having seen his top competitors struggle, Weiss, 24, knew that a solid routine with no major mistakes would put him in first place entering Saturday's long program, which will count for two-thirds of the scoring.
As we now know, that anxiety was justified; as late as 1983, the Soviet leadership mistook a routine Nato exercise as cover for imminent nuclear attack.
