Laugh at Yourself
During a presentation I gave yesterday morning, I shared the story of a luau-based celebration that took place where I work. The food was amazing and they had some luau inspired games for employees to participate in. One of the games was the limbo.
Typically I don’t participate in such activities. It’s not that I don’t want to, but that I’m a coward. I don’t like it when people laugh at me.
But on this occasion I decided to play and have some fun. And of course there was someone with a camera to commemorate the moment. Yikes!! And of course the pictures were posted on the intranet so everyone could view them. Yikes!
When I saw the photo of myself I thought, “Ee-gads! I look horrid. Look how fat my legs look! Look how red my face is. I look like I’m in pain!”
One of my coworkers thought it was funny when he put that photo on my computer’s desktop. I didn’t. I removed it. He replaced it.
Finally I said, “Earl, stop it! Enough is enough. Why do you keep putting that picture on my computer?”
His response left me speechless.
He said, “Because you look like you’re having fun.”
Hmmmm… I thought I looked fat, red and ridiculous. He thought I looked like I was having fun. Hmmmm…
His comment made me remember some of the things other coworkers had said when the luau was over. They said things like: “That limbo contest looked like fun. Wish I had the guts to do it” and “I was so surprised to see you in the limbo contest. You looked like you had fun.”
The truth is I did have fun. And the grotesque contortions on my face were just playing up the difficulty to the audience. Yes, it’s a bad photo from one perspective, but from another perspective it’s a great photo!
What do you think?
There have been so many occasions when I’ve refused to let myself have fun because I might look silly. Well, I’ve done something that was fun. Yes, it did make me look silly (my perspective) and I have a photo to prove it.
But now I’m ready to look silly again. My niece is getting married in a couple of weeks. Guess what I’ll be doing that I never do? That’s right… I’ll be dancing!
As Lee Ann Womack sings “And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance
I hope you dance.”
Have you been “sitting out” of life? Wouldn’t you rather dance? Come on, take my hand… we’ll have fun together!
