The thing is, you can’t sit around and wait for something terrible to happen, you just take life (or a bracelet) one step (or one knot) at a time. If you need to use a string that’s knotted up, you gently pull on just that one string, holding onto the bunch of strings with your other hand, and it will easily come apart. But if you grab at it, or yank it, you’ll end up with a bigger problem. You just gently pull. You negotiate the string and the knots.