"It's only minor Dickens"

My friend Erik was talking about his hoity-toity ivory-tower professor, who said that about David Copperfield, I think. It sounds like a spam subject line. Or maybe a bookstore in the entertainment complex*: Minor Dickens.

...or a life motto. (Look at that, a dramatic line-break/ellipsis!) A lot of things don't matter, yet we act like they do. For example, gas prices. None of us is going to be forced into poverty because of $3/gallon gas. (especially those of us who don't drive, but that's beside the point) Let me know if you are, and I'll come back and get a better example. But we'll just buy fewer things. (Great!)

Or this: my sister's choir director forced them all to go see this choral concert on Mother's Day, so some people got all pissy. First of all, the director shouldn't care. Second, students, if it's that big a deal, just tell the director why you can't go, and don't go. Third, get over it! So you wasted a couple hours at a concert. Big deal.

Erik put it pretty well: No single event in your life is going to have a huge impact, positive or negative. So you try to do the best you can at as many things as you can. And don't worry about it if something goes badly.

This is getting wordy and abstract, and I think I've made my point, so I'm done.

*I should really keep a list of what's in the Entertainment Complex. So far, I think we have:
Have Table (King Arthur themed; everyone sits at semicircular tables.)
Dick in a Round (a theatre in the round, only performs Richard II, Richard III, or one-man shows featuring an actor named Richard.)
Up (restaurant in a skyscraper, about halfway up. Brick walls inside the skyscraper walls, no windows to the outside. Bar and grille. Serves beer in frosted mugs.)
Wootrant (restaurant serving one dish each day. When that dish runs out, we start making something else. Gourmet food, cheap prices. See woot.com)
What's In Store (a store. It sells whatever we want to sell. When people ask what it sells, the answer is "What's in store.")
Minor Dickens (bookstore. Details are still under review.)