Recovering from Embarrassment
Personal embarrassment can be felt from either a perceived or genuine situation. In either case, it is wise to know how to recover gracefully from a compromising experience.
According to psychologists, humiliation is a social emotion?that emerges at around 18 months of age. Most of us have been victims of the awkwardness when in notable predicaments. Common reaction is facial blushing and uneasy demeanor displayed in front of people.
Humor is the best antidote to an assuming social-compromise. In my individual experience, a comical moment is often disguised as a seeming tragedy. An early anecdote illustrates this deception well.
I had a favorite pair of black pants. What was unusual about these slacks was that I wore them with a tie and jacket to look professional. But sometimes the zipper did not work. The night of my son’s grammar school concert I had a hurried call to visit the men’s room. In the lower grade school, it should be called the boy’s room because the urinals are exposed in wide open space, and no private partitions in sight.
领英推荐
Standing in front of an open station was Ron. He is someone I knew, but not very well. Already in service, he had that no-batting-an-eyelash, don't-interrupt-me-look on his face. Should I risk it or not? What if the fly doesn't open? While I wrestled with these grave issues, the pain in my kidneys decided for me. So, I went to a station expecting the results.
Torn between agony and apprehension, I started negotiating with the clip. The stiff gadget would not budge one tooth. I tugged and forced some more, but nothing changed. The zipper was glued shut.
To minimize the amount of disgrace, I casually moved away from the receptacle and went over to Ron. With a pat on his back, I asked him, “How are you doing?” Shaken by my gesture, he turned his blank eyes toward me and answered, “I was doing just fine until you woke me up.” Thank goodness that he was asleep! I knew then that I had saved face. Laughing on the way back to the concert I forgot why I went to the restroom in the first place.