The Shoelace

it’s not the large things that
send a man to the madhouse. death he’s ready for, or
murder, incest, robbery, fire, flood…
no, it’s the continuing series of small tragedies
that send a man to the madhouse…
not the death of his love
but a shoelace that snaps with no time left

– The Shoelace by Charles Bukowski

It’s true.

Bukowski is right.

We tend to steel ourselves against real tragedy. When true devastation comes, we rise up and meet it. We gather our strength and fight. We overcome.

Conversely, when we are late to a dinner date on a Wednesday and can’t find our car keys, we flip out like a small child whose Happy Meal had no toy in it.

(The keys were in your hand by the way. Grasped tightly by your left hand as you raced around the house, opening drawers, and saying crazy things like “someone stole the car keys!”)

But not the car. Just the keys. So valuable, those keys.

There are endless tomes written about tragedy and triumph. Fighting the good fight.

This blog is not about that.

This blog is about the waves of dip-shittery that befall all of us each day.

The subject matter of this blog are those close to my heart.

Travel and business.

I’ve done plenty of both.

At times with great success.

At other times…well…you’ll just have to read on to find out.