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I had been taking notes for years, as you see here.
At first, it was light. The system had its moments. Absurdities that almost felt amusing when seen from a distance. A misplaced priority, a recycled idea, a meeting that performed more than it decided. I noted them, quietly, in the margins.
Other times, they were not amusing.
They were exhausting.
Repetitive.
Forgotten as soon as they passed.
But writing does not forget.
One day, I looked back and found that the fragments had gathered into something complete.
That archive became the source material for The Natural Laws of Bullshit.
There was a certain ease in it. A quiet satisfaction. The patterns were clear. The irony held. It all made sense in its own way.
I named it as such, a record of the system’s absurdities.
But as I kept reading, something else began to emerge.
Between the absurdities, I noticed traces of something different.
Not what the system produced, but how John carried it.
How he kept moving when things made little sense.
How he absorbed, adjusted, and delivered without asking for notice.
I had not set out to record that.
The system never does either. It keeps score only on outcomes.
But outcomes depend on something the system does not measure.
Endurance. Patience. Resolve. Character.
I could see it now, written across the margins I had filled without intention.
The archive was no longer what I thought it was.
It not only recorded the system’s absurdities.
It held traces of what it takes to endure them.
To keep working.
To keep producing.
To keep going – without recognition, without a word about the cost, without end.
It became more than the source from which I deciphered The Natural Laws of Bullshit.
Hidden within the same collection of footnotes was another archive: the source from which I would begin to decipher The Natural Laws of Endurance.
And so, I renamed this archive. A title that finally matched what it contained.
The Footnote: An Insignificant Lawbook of Unofficial Truths.
—Johnny, The Footnote. Keeper of The Footnote: An insignificant lawbook of unofficial truths.
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P.S. John, Johnny, and The Footnote don’t exist — they’re metaphors for the dependable ones who do. The ones who endure the noise, ignore the nonsense, and keep the record honest.
About the Author: Johnny The Footnote
