I have a running text stream with a couple of good friends. Typically, we commiserate about current events, exchange jokes, make plans, and without making this sound any less important than it is, just blow off steam from time to time.
For instance, last weekend I went into town for a Saturday morning meet-up with a group of crossword puzzle enthusiasts at the Artemis bookstore on Hall Street. Arriving a few minutes late, I spotted an available parking spot and drove in face first. Forty-five minutes later I realized that it had been marked as “back in only” when I found the $15 parking ticket tucked under a wiper. Stopping by the State Street parking garage to pay the fine, the attendant soothed my ire by telling me “It happens to the best of us” which became a sort of battle cry in our text stream. For a few days, most every text in the chat included either some tongue in cheek “happens to the best of us” reference, a critique of my rather artless car backing-up skills, or comments about the military industrial parking complex that permeates Traverse City.
Unfortunately, the bit of fun we had with my parking incident turned a bit more real when one of our group chimed in with news that his job was going to be eliminated thanks to artificial intelligence. An inventory manager for a local organization, his position was being eliminated when it was decided that customers could more efficiently acquire their materials through means that did not include interaction with him.
We had joked about this happening but none of us saw it coming and the chat stream turned sour for a few days.
After a few days of commiserations, he announced that he’d found a new job and would be successfully moving on which we all applauded. Part of the new job discussion though included discussion about leaving the old one. His inclination was to just leave the company since he was gone on a month or so anyway. Having once upon a time been both an employee and then an employer, I encouraged him to offer a week’s notice but expect them to just send him home. Either way, something amicable was the best we could hope for.
What then happened became part of our text stream nomenclature. That is, upon tendering his resignation, his employer asked him to stick around for a while in order for them to think of things they needed to ask him about the intricacies of his job — the same job that they had slated for elimination. The instant consensus of the chat group was various replies about how “that is not how this works.”
“That’s not how any of this should work” was his texted response that both ended that conversation thread and summed up the chaos that seems to permeate our society.
As the year 2026 reaches the Memorial Day weekend, I find myself reflecting on these two situations and the phrases that they’ve spawned.
“It happens to the best of us” is something that we all have said to somebody hoping to help them just get over it when faced with crappy consequences. As we all know though, it’s little more than an oral chestnut that helps the giver far more than the receiver.
But if there’s a phrase that captures the essence of 2026 and applies to the world we currently reside in that could be uttered seemingly every day and at every situation, it’s the other one.
“That’s not how any of this should work.”