Let’s be clear. I am more wiseguy, wiseacre, or wiseass than anything resembling a wise man. In my youth I routinely rejected those who wanted to help me and did lots of truly dumb stuff.

Everybody grows up sometime and somehow, in spite of myself, I encountered wisdom. Perhaps it came in the form of an extraordinary story told to me by a seemingly ordinary person. Perhaps it came on later reflection of my mistakes.

I was rarely seeking wisdom, but I knew it when I saw it and wrote it down.

These are those stories of workin’, lovin’, and livin’ wisely.