Wednesday, June 10, 2015

Embarrassment

      Most if not all people know the feeling of embarrassment. We can be caught at something or do something that brings about discomfort. We may tense up, sweat or feel tension for what has been done.

      Even though I'm pretty thick skinned I have experienced embarrassment. I can make a very dumb mistake. I can say something that can be misinterpreted. I can misinterpret something and my response is to be embarrassed.

     I think some people suffer embarrassment much more than others. I find that if I'm quick enough to catch on to an embarrassing situation the easier it is to survive. I can admit or acknowledge that I've done something embarrassing. As a guy, my fly is sometimes left down. If I happen to be lucky and somebody reminds me a quick comment of oops and thanks for the reminder gets me by. If I discover the situation myself, then I wonder how many stares I have missed and suffer embarrassment alone.

     This week my partner embarrassed me. My partner asked me to pick up a book for her from the library. She's been reading James Herriot books lately and asked me to find one she hadn't read. She met me at the library and I had one book picked out but she had read it. There were a couple more on the list that we looked for and couldn't find. I asked and was informed that they were in the children's section.

     Well, my partner just had to go to the children's section as she thought maybe she would find something suitable. We found one book and then asked where the other two were located. We were informed that they were picture books but the librarian insisted that we look at them. She insisted that she liked picture books and that my partner would enjoy the book. Well, guess what? My partner decided to take the kid's book!

    So I said  ,"How am I going to check this thing out? People will think that the old guy has regressed into his second childhood." So for this I can be humorous and joke about it. I suppose I could say that it's to read to a grandchild.

   Now I've know the librarian who talked to us for a long time. My daughter had a job at the library during high school and worked for Laural. I was on the library board and Laural was an excellent children's librarian.

    Now Laurel is also an accomplished writer of children's books. She writes picture books.

    So you see that there is a connection to the event that took place. It was not embarrassing but a lot of good fun.