Member-only story
What Your Work Is Missing
“A part of good science is to see what everyone else can see but think what no one else has ever said,” Amos Tversky says to Don Redelmeier (via The Undoing Project). That’s certainly true; it’s also part of good storytelling. Van Lathan writes in his latest book, Fat, Crazy, and Tired:
“I grabbed the first scale I saw, and I started toward the men’s room. I almost made it, but it wasn’t meant to be. Just as I put my hands on that germ-filled door, I heard a deep voice yell out, “SIR, YOU CAN’T TAKE MERCHANDISE IN THERE.”
I turned around and saw a Walmart employee. And not just any Walmart employee — one of THOSE Walmart employees. You know, the type that takes any infraction of store policy as a threat to freedom everywhere. Granted, I have to admit that it was a weird scene. Here I am, a huge Black man in a Best Buy uniform taking a scale into the bathroom. You certainly don’t see that every day, and this stalwart protector of retail integrity wasn’t having it.”
One of the aspects I appreciate most about writing — including memoir, comedy, or songwriting — is how you can literally write about anything and take a shot at making it interesting. In this passage, Lathan writes about the day he discovered how much he really weighed, and his odyssey to Walmart and L.A. Fitness to figure it out. You’ll also learn why he didn’t just buy a scale. I shared…
