This one is about what happens when you notice something ugly in yourself and then attempt to correct it using the worst possible internal management system.
Penelope does learn a lesson.
Unfortunately, she immediately makes the lesson weird.
Everyone is trying. Everyone is tired. Nothing technically happens, which is one of the more violent forms of happening.
A system is developed.
The system is deranged.
This one is about a coffee lid, unfortunately.
It is also about the tiny laundering machine in my brain that occasionally takes something morally sticky, runs it through a gentle cycle, and hands it back labeled Respectful Behavior.
Which is inconvenient, because sometimes it is respectful behavior.
And sometimes there is a second thing behind it with its little awful hands on the wheel.
I don’t think shame fixes much. I do think naming the thing can. Or at least it gives you half a second more than you had before – which, apparently, is sometimes the whole moral structure.
Anyway. Coffee lid. A completely normal beverage accessory. Naturally it ruined my life.
A demonstration is requested.
Penelope offers a lukewarm review.
Corrective measures are taken.
Someone says something emotionally devastating on the rug.
