Getting Hurt in Public

Monday, January 21, 2008 |

Ok- is there anything worse in life that public humiliation?

If you have that lovely eternal perspective on life you might say bad health, loss of income, bad things happening to loved ones etc. is SOOO much worse.

But let's all be immature for a moment and admit it. I HATE it when I do something people will be teasing me about possibly for the rest of my life. (Shout out to Elder P.!! We've all been there- just NEVER with that many people listening and in a religious setting- I feel for ya)

Are we the most anxious and at the mercy of our lesser selves when doing public speaking? Is that when we care the most about our cool factor?

I would argue that No......this is not the most instinctual moment of our social worries.

It is the moment when we get pushed off the trampoline, get a baseball in the thigh, get our hands slammed in a car door(all glorious moments in my life), get a volleyball spiked in our head(as I experienced this week). Out of all the moments in life for some idiotic reason we are most worried about other people's reaction when it is THEY who should rightly be more embarrassed for hurting us.

Why can't we just say "OWWWWW!!! You really hurt me.....I mean I'm not mad, but OWWWWW!!!"

Instead we keep stoically silent biting the inside of our lips, cursing up a storm inside our heads. We choke out the obligatory laugh..."I'm out of breath ...not because it hurts....but because its's so funny. These sobs are from me containing my glee. The tears running out of my eyes??? Can't you tell it's because of my joy about the money we'll make on america's funniest home videos if anyone caught that throw on tape?"

Why are we so embarrassed to be the ones that got hurt and not the ones with the horrifyingly bad aim/ bad luck ?

Or maybe I just pretend to be fine as a sort of golden rule morality. React unto others as you would have them react unto you. Maybe I'm just bitter because if I accidentally hit someone they inevitably cry like a girl or say "I'm fine.....can someone help me off the court to rest for a few minutes?" which means they will be driving to the hospital later. And I'll be getting dirty looks for the rest of the night from their friends and I'll be feeling guilty and, that's right, embarrassed.

1 comments:

Alison said...

Well, at least I can now take comfort in the fact that I am not the only one that is consistently hit in the head with athletic equipment. ;) I guess everyone knows now why I no long attend church sporting activities--TOO DANGEROUS!!