3-4-25

I believe I’ve said it before that I’ve built an entire life out of shaving the corners

off of square pegs and making them fit into round holes…..I jokingly say that its

my superpower….take those little hard edged square pegs and round those

suckers out until they fit right into those round holes…...I say it all the time….and

really its because that’s what I do …..all the time……some have used the phrase

“square pegs in round holes” to mean going against the grain, or not fitting in,

swimming against the tide if you will…….not me…..I see it as a phrase that speaks

to problem solving…….making things work that no one thought could

work……pushing through the difficulties to arrive at success regardless of the

belief by others that it could get done……..don’t tell me something can’t be done,

just cut me loose and let me show you how……it’s part of why I elected to go to

law school in my 30’s…..”you can’t do that!....watch me”……”You can’t run for

State Senate against an incumbent…….watch me”……”you can’t go down to

Montgomery and fight the Teachers Union on school choice….you can’t vote

down the gas tax”…..watch me”……or the latest one that I’m having fun with:

“You can’t just start a radio show out of thin air…….ok, watch me”……

Just this morning I read a social media post by a guy I follow…..he’s notorious for

poking at trolls on his socials….he’s always got an upbeat attitude with a healthy

dose of sarcasm….he’s also a retired Green Beret Sergeant Major…..this morning

he said that he was thinking about doing a speech on resiliency…..he said he’s

been shot twice, blown up, had 34 surgeries to repair his face, jaw, back, hips….he

also endured a $70K fraudulent credit card charge and once failed a drug test in

the military for reasons I can’t imagine…..despite all of that he presses on and

keeps his daily travails and life issues front and center for all to see and said that

even with his new store bought hip that was just replaced a month ago he intends

to run a 50-mile race and will take the Army Combat Fitness Test in November

this year……Just. Wow……that’s somebody who may have some life lessons to

share and I’m going to try to get him on a podcast…..but what you just heard in all

of that was a “don’t quit” attitude…..and he didn’t get there overnight…..it was

built on a lifetime of shaving the corners off of square pegs to make them fit in

round holes…..

I was talking to a young lawyer recently about next steps in her own legal

career…..I told her, “I’m of the firm belief that you can beat every lawyer in town,

even the smartest lawyers in town, if you put in the time to research the nuances

of the law”……why? Because as one older Attorney told me years ago, most

lawyers are lazy and won’t do the research…..or in my own words, they don’t

want to take the time to see if they can make the legal square pegs fit into the

legal round holes…….but please take note that I was sharing something with her

that had been told to me years before……and that’s key, because once you know

it you’ve got to share it…..pass it on…..bring up the next generation with the

stories of what it means to actually stare adversity in the face and change your

circumstances……

There was a great line from the movie Apollo 13……the classic movie with the

ensemble cast of Tom Hanks, Kevin Bacon, Bill Paxton, Gary Sinise and Ed Harris

about the Apollo Moon launch that went bad and left our Astronauts in the

position of potentially dying in space……It’s the mission that spawned the famous

line “Houston, we have a problem”……to save power the astronauts were shutting

down all unnecessary systems and consolidating to one part of the lunar

module…..but that also meant shutting down one of their main oxygen generating

systems….the backup system was having trouble but also wasn’t meant for the

extended time they needed and to add to their problems the parts from one part

of the module didn’t fit with the other part of the module……in essence, the filters

they needed to use were square….but the air scrubbers they needed to use were

round….Ed Harris played Gene Kranz, the ground team leader and just looked at

all of the PhD’s who were staring at him and said “well gentlemen, I suggest that

you need to start working on fitting square pegs into round holes,

expeditiously”….so that’s exactly what they did…..they took inventory of all the

stuff that was onboard the lunar module right down to the roll of duct tape and

they figured out exactly how to save those men’s lives by literally fitting squares

into circles……..I’m told that it’s something that is actual practice in the

construction of railroads…..a common method of securing the steel rails to the

timbers is to drive a square-cut spike into pre-drilled round holes as they grab the

corners and fit tighter……

But even this desire to make things work has to be tempered with wisdom……just

because you can doesn’t always mean you should…….more than once I have

advised legal clients that while they might be able to file a lawsuit because they

feel aggrieved that it does not guarantee that they will win under the law……more

times than I can count I’ve been in a military situation, whether in war or training,

in the field and in garrison, and recognized that taking that high ground (whether

figurative or actual) might not be as effective as bypassing it…….having started

businesses and run organizations I know that success sometimes meaning not

outpacing your market…….

So what’s the fine line here?......when do we look at life and decide whether or

not to scrape off the corners of the square pegs we’ve been

handed……wisdom…..that’s what it boils down to…….is there a real problem, then

yes, solve it…..is there a real need, then yes, meet it…..is there a worthy goal, then

absolutely work to achieve it…….

But I look at politicians these days and I feel like they too often try to justify their

existence by holding up two handfuls of shaved off square pegs and they still can’t

get anything done with them because there was no wisdom…..think about some

of the ordeals and crazy policies we’ve been forced to endure and tell me where

the wisdom was……

For instance, do we want to care for the environment? Sure, but the world, the

market, the technology is not ready for the green new deal. But yet they force

what Biden called “the necessary transition” and gas prices go through the

roof…..they even told us that climate change was the existential threat to the

world and therefore made the Department of Defense focus on it…..and readiness

plummeted……

Or how about this one……Do we believe in care and concern for others? Of course

we do. But you cannot force us to subject our kids to Drag Queens and the

improper use of pronouns in the quest for a false sense of what you call

equity…..equity and equality are two different things and gender dysphoria in an

adult does not mean they get to subject their insecurities on children…..

Do we believe that women and minorities should be given the same chance’s to

serve in positions of authority? Sure we do. But DEI almost became the ruin of

corporations and colleges and city halls…..merit went away in favor of reverse

discrimination in the name of DEIR……we should have never accepted that the

first qualification to be a Supreme Court Justice was whether or not the nominee

for the highest court in the land was a black woman and then approve her simply

because she was a black woman.

I could go on….but listen…..overcoming adversity in life will absolutely be a

question of resolve, and resiliency, and faith, and effort…..real effort…..but square

pegs can actually fit in round holes…..I know, I’ve proved it time and time again….

Square pegs in round holes…….where there is a need, a will, a problem to solve, I

am all for it…..but it should never be at the expense of all else out of the blind and

unwise position that nothing else matters except what I want……that is one of the

problems in today’s liberal progressive policies at the state and federal level…..

…..wisdom….wisdom above all else……..otherwise you’re just nailing pegs and

making noise……

And that’s a wrap for the Rightside Way….