Shoelaces

 What’s all this about shoelaces?! 

Shoelaces were like socks in a washing machine when I was young. They disappeared mysteriously. They were taken out of these shoes called keds to be washed. Keds were worn to school on days you had a sports period. Sometimes, you ended up with three shoelaces for a pair of shoes. Who knows where the third shoelace appeared in your stash or  suddenly showed up on the clothing line hanging out drying shoelaces? 

It was the absolute worst when the aglet wore out and exposed a bunch of threads come undone from the tip of the shoelace. One aglet lost was all it took to pronounce your appearance untidy. One aglet lost was all that required to get your parents to spend non-existent money on buying a replacement pair of shoelaces. 

That’s more trouble than it’s worth. 

But it’s the more-trouble-than-they’re-worth things that keep it all together. Like shoelaces.