Feeling Foolish

My sister-in-law just wrote a blog about taking a tumble and flashing her pretty panties to the world. I sort of laughed when I read it but realized quickly that little accidents like that are terribly embarrassing at the time and we think the shame of it will never go away. It does, though, as the onlookers carry on with their own lives and their own misadventures.

Why is it so embarrassing to trip, even if we catch ourselves before we hit the ground? It's as though we've disrupted the smooth flow of civilization when we stub our toe on a ridge in the pavement. Arms fling out and legs do a ragged dance as we try to gain our composure. We usually stare back at the offending ridge or whatever caused us to make a spectacle of ourselves.

It's much worse when we're alone and stumble than when we have friends along to laugh with. Maybe that's why we're embarrassed. We know that strangers are giggling to themselves and we have no-one to take the edge off.

Animals don't feel foolish when they do awkward things so why should we? I think it's for the same reason that most of us don't enjoy being center stage. As children, it's drilled into us to conform and behave so we end up disliking to be singled out, especially if it isn't for praise. Falling in public and showing your underwear is a big step away from silently blending into the masses. It's hard to imagine at the moment that similar incidents have happened to a large chunk of the masses and they're probably giggling because they're thankful it's you tripping this time and not them.

I've had a few falls this summer. Once on the back deck while I was carrying a chair down the stairs...I was alone and landed on the wooden deck which wasn't solid enough to hurt me. The second time was while I was pulling weeds out of the flower bed and leaned in too far...I was alone and landed in the dirt which wasn't solid, either. Both times embarrassed the life out of me even though no-one saw me. I think that when you fall you forget all the grace which shields you from the world. It's that momentary nakedness that we don't like to show, even to ourselves.

I bet that my sister-in-law will never fully forget her experience but she should be able to laugh about it soon. We have to laugh at ourselves because we tend to do awfully dumb things. All of us!