I was talking to a friend recently who was telling me how miserable he had been at work because of his co workers’ constant state of unhappiness and complaining and how it was starting to suck the life out of him. It got me to thinking. We have become a society of unhappy, angry, complaining people.
Every day it seems like were surrounded by more and more angry, stressed out, unhappy people. I’m not talking about people who are dealing with tragedy, traumas or true economic hardships in their lives. I’m talking about the people who we constantly see on social media blowing a gasket in Starbucks because the barista only put 3 pumps of sugar free vanilla syrup in their coffee instead of 5. Or the person who comes into a fast food restaurant and attacks an employee because they were given a bacon biscuit in the drive thru instead of the sausage biscuit they ordered (this actually happened). I mean is it really that serious? Is it me or are people taking themselves way to seriously lately and getting themselves worked up and stressed out over non life or death situations.
I have a former co worker named Ellen. And one of the most remarkable things that I loved about working with her, was her ability to not take herself too seriously and be able to laugh at herself. She had no shortage of hilarious stories of various situations she found herself in or mishaps that happened to her and/or her husband and son. Sometimes she would tell us one of these stories near the end of a really long work day and it would have us all doubled over with tears in our eyes from laughing so hard.
I think if more people started looking for the humor in their lives and laughed more at themselves, their stress levels would decrease tremendously. I mean, I laugh at myself all the time. There is one such moment that I look back on all the time and still get a good chuckle out of it.
Using my best Sophia Petrillo voice; picture it, Barcelona October 2012. A young(ish) black man travels to Spain for his 39th birthday and to celebrate a year of being back in the working world after 2 dismal years of unemployment. He spent 7 wonderful days, including his birthday, in Madrid and then traveled to Barcelona to finish out the trip. As a treat he decided that he would pamper himself with an afternoon at the spa. He put on his favorite white v neck tee with green pin stripes and his favorite salmon colored shorts and headed to his scheduled appointment at the beautiful Bliss Spa in the picturesque, beach front W Hotel. He indulged himself with a mani-pedi, facial, body scrub, body wrap, and 90 min massage. He had been in an especially good mood before arriving to Bliss; but, after the spa day he felt even more fabulous looking at himself in the mirror with his clothes back on. He thought to himself, “hmmm…I look fabulous and no man will be able to resist me if wear this out to dinner and drinks later.”
So, off he went feeling gleeful and ready to attack the still warm Barcelona evening. He hailed a taxi and headed to the Diagonal Mar Shopping Mall to reload minutes on his temporary overseas rental phone. He arrived at the mall, got out of the cab and ascended up the long step way like he was Naomi Campbell walking the runway at a Marc Jacobs fashion show. Once at the top, he had to walk past a crowd of people sitting outside in the outdoor food court. As he walked along he began to notice eyes following him. He thought to himself, “Yes! They all think I look fabulous too! Look out boys, here I come.”
He walked into the mall and strutted down the corridor like a peacock that had just fanned it’s feathers in display of all its glory. As he continued to strut he noticed more eyes on him but pretended not to notice. He didn’t want to seem like he was conceited, after all. After walking a few hundred feet he felt his hand brush across what felt like a loose string. He just brushed it off as if it was nothing…that is until he saw his reflection in a store front window and noticed something horrifying.
Apparently as he got out of the cab he had ripped his favorite shorts from just under the waste down to the hem and made a huge gap. It was then that he also realized that the eyes that had been following him were not because they thought he was fabulous but because his right butt cheek(thankfully covered with boxers) had been hanging out for all eyes to see. This young(ish) man, was me and I was stunned. It took me an additional 15 mins to find the phone carrier store, reload the minutes, and find a Levi’s store to buy the only pair of jeans they had in my size(all with my butt cheek and boxers blowing in the wind). A pair of jeans that also happened to be so tight I couldn’t fit both my phone or wallet and my hand in the pocket at the same time. I also couldn’t sit with my knees bent. I literally had to keep my legs stretched out the entire time I sat. They also made me walk funny. I was, indeed, a hot mess.
After I walked out of Levi’s wearing my new jeans, I went to the food court and grabbed a bite to eat and a glass of wine so I could let the embarrassment wear off. I sat there and replayed the events that just transpired in my head and immediately broke out into a fit of giggles including a snort. That might have just ruined someone else’s day but I just couldn’t help but find the hilarity in what had happened. Thinking back on this incident makes me truly believe that if we all just took a step back before we complained or blew up over the small things and really tried to find the humor in our every day lives; we might just end up enduring a little bit less stress each day. Then we can save the outrage and fits of anger and direct them at the things that really deserve them, like school shootings, police brutality, or racial and economic inequality.
Here’s to more laughter in all of our lives and not sweating the small things.
K
Leave a Reply