Frank "never could stand that dog."

From a CNN piece on Tom Waits:

"Bukowski had a story that essentially was saying that it's the little things that drive men mad," Waits said. "It's not World War II. It's the broken shoe lace when there is no time left that sends men completely out of their minds.

"I think there is a little bit of Frank in everybody."

In the song, Frank eventually runs amok, setting fire to the family home and blazing a trail up the Hollywood freeway because, as Waits quips in the pay-off "he never could stand that dog."

I think it's the little things that will be my undoing. So far, some semblance of a sense of humor is what's keeping me laughing instead of crying. Last night as I was walking across the dark hotel parking lot to the shuttle bus, I was softly singing Waits' "Rains On Me" and keeping a relaxed mood despite the stresses and strains of life's grand challenges swirling around in my head.

This is how the world will be
Everywhere I go it rains on me
Forty monkeys drowning in a boiling sea
Everywhere I go it rains on me.

Like a really bad joke, the sprinklers were on and one was spraying its H2O decisively against the door of the bus. Rain on me, indeed. Thank goodness for my mood. If any other night or any other disposition, who knows what crazed reaction would have ensued?

I'm reminded of a story I remember hearing but can't find evidence of online. A popular children's television actor from the 70s apparently once had a minor freak-out and was arrested for streaking though the streets of Nashville.

Sometimes the mad dogs in one's head just need to be let off the leash for a while. "It's not World War II. It's the broken shoe lace when there is no time left that sends men completely out of their minds." I understand completely.

Here's to holding on when the shoe lace breaks. And here's to simply laughing it off when the sprinklers target your door.