Failure as a Lifestyle

Big game day. Three codgered architects meet at the alma mater to view another drubbing of our football team. We have attended one of these games every year now for, what? Going on for 12 years or so. We expect our team to lose, and they seldom disappoint. The game isn't so much as important as getting together. We went through architecture together, through the 'Nam' years together in the Army National Guard, and through our careers - since the internets anyway- via daily email. Friends with as much history (44 years) are fairly rare. But the strongest glue, the common thread, the salient element in our relationship is our sharing of three things that are designed to beat you down into the dust of utter failure - architecture, military and K-State football. And we have excelled in it. The fact that we are also men and, moreover, husbands also helps this formula for disaster. Let's face it, no man, much less husband, can ever hope to amount to much of anything. Add to that architecture, military National Guard and KSU and, well, we stand proudly accused.
So it was with bittersweet aplomb that we watched our team self-destruct today before our very eyes. Unravel. Implode. Weave all over the field and, yes, fart itself to death. Good Lord!
We will soon go to Kansas City for our annual Failed Architects Reliving Traditionally Expected Disaster (F.A.R.T.E.D.) dinner, departing to our failed lives the next day. Stay tuned.........