“Pride attaches undue importance to the superiority of one’s status in the eyes of others; and shame is fear of humiliation at one’s inferior status in the estimation of others. When one sets his heart on being highly esteemed, and achieves such rating, then he is automatically involved in fear of losing his status.”
You’ve been there, you’ve done that, in fact you might even be doing it right now. Everyday, whether actively or passively, people everywhere are working overtime to avoid messing up somehow because let’s face it, few things are more unsettling in life than someone else watching you when you’re about to look bad.
We will do whatever it takes to maintain the image that we’ve got it all together, which just sets us up for the inevitable fall because remaining on a pedestal; sustaining admiration and high regard, is a delicate balancing act that no man has ever mastered.
We are not in control. Sometimes stuff just happens.
Within in minutes, I was surrounded.
I knew that I would have to think fast, which was typically not a difficult thing for me to do. I had always been able to figure my way in and out of “a situation,” however this one was posing some unique logistical challenges, promising some potentially damaging personal consequences indeed. This was a real mess and I was stuck sitting there cross-legged on the floor and without a plan of escape.
“Better think fast,” I thought. As I tried to breathe and maintain my composure, I started to panic, realizing that this episode could threaten my reputation as their hero and reduce me to just another face in the crowd.
As the puddle rapidly expanded, I knew that I’d better act now or innocent unsuspecting bystanders, like the kid sitting slightly behind me and just to my left, were going to get hurt.
“Oh no!” I screamed at the top of my lungs. And with that outburst I had instantly become the center of attention, which was kind of what I was trying to avoid. All eyes on me, now I had no choice but to commit and to play this card all the way through. My determination to save face had just become an all or nothing proposition.
“Didn’t you guys see him?”, I screamed even louder this time, trying to invoke confusion in an effort to thwart any attempt on their part to employ logic and figure out what was really going on here.
“The little man that was flying around my head just now—you didn’t just see him throw that bucket of warm water under my legs?!”
All I could hear was the sound of my heart pounding away at what once was my tidy little reality. All I could feel was the anticipation of doom as I fought to hold back my tears. All I could think about was how I was going to get from this puddle to my front door with my dignity in tact and whether or not I was going to be able show my face back at school the next day.
