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This column is an experiment. Like life.
It is inspired by and at times penned by Mr. Shupe and his particular way of moving through the world. If asked, Mr. Shupe will sometimes reference a stoic mindset: the awareness that external events, the past, and the future are outside our control. We can only control our own attitude, words and actions while attending to the present moment. Stoicism is not the lack of emotion but an ability to step back from and examine emotions with curiosity.
In this spirit, this column is a meditation on happenstances and reactions to the drudgery and amusement of everyday encounters.
by: Mr. Shupe
date: October 2, 2025
Being an adult member of a community in this country means that a four inch by six inch card stock may appear in your mailbox one day. The words on the card references the law to force the reader to sit in a jury duty waiting room just a few weeks later.
Weeks later I’m in that room. A white haired gentleman in a smart Docker pant and Merrell slip-on loafers accidentally drops a twenty-two ounce Tervis Classic Tumbler full of water on the laminate floor. Over seventeen (I think it was eighteen or nineteen - but I can’t be sure) people seated around the khaki juror shrieked and winced at the sound, then gasped at the amount of liquid spreading around their feet.
Fortunately for me, I was able to witness the moment the elbow nudged the cup off the armrest and fell from my seat in the corner on the floor. So I watched the immediate response as I stood from my cross legged seated position. The bathroom door was six feet from my corner position, so I was able to find the paper towel dispenser in just a few steps.
After expertly pressing the towel dispenser thirty six times, my non-pressing arm filled with what can only be described as brown paper - but only if printer paper could be brown and one quarter-ply. Moving briskly but non-chalanced, I stepped over the seated knees of the khaki neighbors to place the paper on the nearest edge of the still spreading h two oh… ohhhh, what? How come not one other person in this place got up to get brown paper?
One Merrell sole was surrounded by water. One sole resting on a knee. The spectacled white hair peeked up to find my shocked face. “It’ll dry,” he said.
Check out past What the Shupe?! articles:
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