Banana Skins Ain’t Always Bad

I’m walking through Charlotte airport to throw a banana skin in the trash when a voice yanks me from my daydream.

“Dave Nicol?!” asks/exclaims a face that is familiar - yet not.

This is not an everyday occurrence, so I’m caught off guard. But the mist clears a little as Dr. Karen Bradley introduces herself. Then, as quickly as it happened, the moment sweeps past as the flow of human traffic pushes us along.

The mist clears further as my mind catches up, and from it resolves the memory of one of my very early Blunt Dissection Podcast episodes featuring Karen and Dr. Kim Therrien. (It’s a good one—I’m making a mental note now to listen in again.)

But now I’m just in awe of how unlikely that moment was. For context, I live in England. Karen lives in the North East of the United States (if my memory serves me right).

What are the odds? Are they tiny? Or perhaps they’re not, and we’re all just seconds away from a multitude of such moments. One stop to tie a shoelace, and you miss the moment. One dawdle to throw a banana skin in the trash, and you’re perfectly positioned for a mind-bending meeting.

It turns out we’re on the same flight and carry on a brief, lovely chat. It ends with us both marvelling at just how small our beloved veterinary profession is.

But it’s not just that—it strikes me that it’s a small world. And so, a vanishingly small veterinary world.

So be mindful of that as you go about your business. Be nice. Be kind. Help folks out.

If you do, you’ll be exposed to some wonderful moments and grow a network of friends around our small world.

If you don’t, you might just skid on an unlikely banana skin when you least expect it. And, as life has a vicious sense of humour, it’ll probably happen when you least need it.