What The Shupe?!?

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. 

So basically, one day I’m at the newspaper club with my friend Betty. We are talking about random stuff and she moves her foot to a better position. While doing that she managed to KNOCK DOWN my cup of lemonade that was FULL!!! So I say, “Betty, go get me more!” and she says, “No”. I mean come on!!! So then I say, “BETTY, GO GET ME MORE RIGHT NOW!!!”Eventually she gets up and goes to get me more lemonade. While she gets me more lemonade, I think about how many times this EXACT thing has happened to me. Moral of the story, DON’T KNOCK OVER MY LEMONADE CUP!!!!!!!!!

But the real moral is to automatically go get a new lemonade cup, WITHOUT being asked multiple times. I mean, What the Shupe?

At the same time though, forgiveness doesn’t mean waiting for repair. You can forgive or move on even if the person never makes amends, your cup can still be full again, just not because of them.

Check out past What the Shupe?! articles: