Cup of Joe - July 13, 2026

By Joe McKenzie

Resilience: When life becomes a seemingly uphill journey and you realize your seat at the Stiefel for a favorite band is in the balcony, but you keep going. You could have stopped at the bar, maybe, like you did when you were younger. You still remember the first time you saw this group in concert. You are wearing a faded t-shirt from many tours ago. You struggle up the stairs and finally make it to your seat. Finally, the crowd roars as the band takes the stage. This gives you new life. In 2 hours, you and the enthusiastic crowd will rise to dance and sing along with an unforgettable hit. When the encore ends, you feel young again and look forward to climbing those stairs again.

Gaze: It’s possible to look long and hard and not see anything. I drove by a man who was standing with his back to companions, not moving, his head looking up at an empty sky. He was taking a moment. In a drive-by observance, it could have been anything - a bird or a plane - but, it seemed to be deeply-felt grief, mixed with American frustration. He was at the far edge of the parking lot of a funeral home. Have you been there? Can we find solace in the sky? Relief or understanding of our pain in a quiet walk-away moment? There are many times we will stop and look for peace.

Stud: Really? You thought this was about you? No, dude. Take it down a notch. Take it all the way down to the studs. I keep hearing versions of this: down to the bones, to the skeleton. Television likes the demo part of building, if you believe the reality of protective eyewear, hard hats, high heels and sledgehammers on HGTV.  Start over. Do it the right way. Gut it. Down to the studs! Destroy someone else’s dream. Most homeowners never quite go this far. They work with what they have. Change is hard enough, even for old or wanna-be studs. But, it is appealing to imagine what is behind those walls, to see how the old studs are holding up.

Pedi: Where did Hercules get his pedicures? We’ll never know. Herc was a quiet and somewhat private man. I saw a magnificent and silent sculpture of a larger than life Hercules wrestling a vicious serpent. This was a Missouri based Hercules. Up close at eye level, his toenails were perfect, as if he knew the artist would be around for his fight with the serpent and just in case, what the hell, get the toenails done. How did the artist get so close to notice? I really expected to find a mess on those large, tough feet. Who thinks about pedicures while battling everyday serpents? Our hero on a pedestal went around in bare feet. So, kudos to his nail salon. Hopefully, the hero was a great tipper.

Doors: Whenever I see a second story door that opens into nothing, I think of the house when that door led to a stairwell or porch. There is a simple, yet classic second story door to nowhere on S. 9th Street. I once lived in an old house with an exit door from the 2nd story primary bathroom. It led to a tiny deck that held the air conditioner. The house pre-dated the cooled air option. Now, that old door on 9th is seemingly useless and potentially dangerous. There may be no easy fix or the money to make that repair on an older two-story home with a history that has more stories than just two. Watch that first step!