Something Like Wisdom

The Elevator Test

306 Shane — Thu, 27 Aug 2026 19:11:53 GMT

There is a moment in an elevator that tells me more about myself than I would like.

I am already inside.

I have pressed my floor.

The doors are closing.

Then, I see someone coming.

Not at the elevator.

Coming toward it.

This distinction matters.

If they are three feet away, there is no question. I press the OPEN button.

If they are fifty feet away, there is also…

The Bad Wheel

306 Shane — Fri, 21 Aug 2026 14:59:37 GMT

I got the bad cart.

You know the one.

There are forty-seven shopping carts nested together outside the grocery store, and somehow I choose the one with a wheel that has lost its enthusiasm for the project.

The problem doesn't reveal itself immediately.

This is important.

A bad shopping cart waits until you have committed.

The first few feet are fine.

Then: thu…

The Fish You Caught

306 Shane — Thu, 13 Aug 2026 21:00:04 GMT

There are three small atolls in the South Pacific that make up Tokelau.

They are the sort of places that make our usual ideas about geography seem slightly ridiculous.

There is land.

Then there is an astonishing amount of ocean.

Then there is a little more land.

And then there is ocean again for several hundred miles.

On these islands there is an old practice…

The Extra Chair

306 Shane — Sun, 09 Aug 2026 14:27:52 GMT

There was a man in my neighbourhood who kept two chairs in his front yard.

This would not have been noteworthy except that he lived alone.

Every afternoon when the weather cooperated, he would come outside, sit in one of them, and leave the other empty.

The chairs weren't much to look at.

They were the folding kind with aluminum frames and strips of plastic…

The Good Towel

306 Shane — Sat, 08 Aug 2026 03:55:04 GMT

There was a towel in my house growing up that nobody was supposed to use.

This was strange, because it is a towel.

Towels have a fairly limited range of ambitions. They do not aspire to become curtains. They do not dream of being promoted to tablecloth. Their entire reason for existing is to get wet so that something else can become dry.

Nevertheless, this…