Laughing at myself

Posted by Anita Bondi on January 16, 2012 under Anita Bondi | Be the First to Comment

I love to laugh at myself. I encourage others to laugh at themselves. Selves make silly mistakes, say stupid things, mess up. This (in my humble opinion) is no reason for feeling shame, hiding the truth, or creating defensiveness if caught.

What if we all simply “outed” our mistakes and laughed at ourselves? Whether it be a big thing like hurting someone’s feelings by sticking the proverbial foot in the mouth, or using the wrong word in a sentence, or, _____________.

I’ll start with a small one from my own day (after all ,incrementality is the only way to get anywhere)!

I woke up this morning so excited. I remembered that it was Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and that I had just taken a picture of a jewelry piece that had a partial quote of his hand-stamped on it. The whole time I was getting ready for the day, walking the dog, eating breakfast, I was thinking about how I could do a blog post today and honor him and myself in the process! (self-promotion is not a bad thing, a hard thing, but not a bad thing.)

I downloaded my photos, picked the best one, and sat down to write what was going to be a simple two sentence blog post.

Suddenly it was not Martin Luther King, Jr.’s face that I saw but rather it was Gandhi’s face. So, here is where laughing at myself really comes in handy. They are clearly not the same person, do not physically resemble each other, and did not live in the same country. I was about to proudly post the quote, “BE THE CHANGE YOU WISH TO SEE IN THE WORLD”, alongside the picture of my jewelry piece, and a link to Martin Luther King Jr.

I could have just let this go, after all, you would have never known about it. I caught it in time. This time. What about all the other times that I don’t? Laughing at myself and telling you about my mistakes makes me ask these questions? Do you  feel a bit better knowing that “you” are not alone in your mistakes? Do I feel a bit better knowing that you will still like me even though I mixed up two great but very different men? And will this put a big smile on your face right now and cause you to giggle or laugh at me, yourself, and the ways that we are all so unbelievably beautiful in our humanness?

PS. Is there a Gandhi Day? If not, I declare this day the day to “have a dream of being the change you wish to see in the world.”