WHY KNOT

Granny knot. Then make a tree. Then run the rabbit around the tree and through the hole. Done. Shoes tied. For the millionth time.

I've used this method since Mrs. Heilman taught it to me in kindergarten. Before that I used mom, dad or strangers who looked like they needed something to do. You probably learned how to tie your shoelaces from a teacher too. Or from a father who learned from his father who learned from his father who...

And so you and I and millions more walk around with trees circled by rabbits on our big boy shoes to this day. It works for me. I've never questioned it. Have you?

But did you know there's more than one way to secure laces. There are at least sixteen. And I've decided to try them all. Not because the rabbit approach hasn't served me well but because doing something as simply subversive as tying my shoes differently is a challenge to the status quo and my own patterns of thinking and habitual unquestioned living. It's a tiny reminder that there might be a different way than what I've always known - a different way to think about almost everything. And that way just might be better, faster, more beautiful or more fun in the end.

And maybe knot.