The first night of Threshold, Louise asked us about our favorite books from childhood. What came to mind was a treasured gift from my grandmother, A Child's Garden of Verses, containing the poem "My Shadow." Later, I reread my Threshold application and realized I had talked about shadow:

Our family ethos seems to be a cross between the Protestant Work Ethic & Murphy's Law. Duty, obedience, frugality, and self-reliance meet contingency plans and an unfriendly world.* The name of the game seems to be things-just-don't-go-our-way. This mentality-reality perpetuates itself and seems to follow me like a shadow, no matter how hard I try to shake it. My mother jokes that we should change our last name. Meanwhile, I am desperately seeking to prove it all wrong and want to declare the following rewrite:
 

Murphy's new law: Anything that can go wrong, will go right.

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* “The most important decision we make is whether we believe we live in a friendly or hostile universe.” -Albert Einstein