Tricky Tricky…won’t get me

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In response to The Daily Post’s writing prompt: “Isn’t Your Face Red.”

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So the daily post wants me to recount a time when I was most embarrassed. I’m not sure the person who wrote the prompt understands the nature of embarrassment. I don’t thing the author understands that those moments when you feel that emotion are ones that you really don’t want to recount for all the world to see.

I don’t think they understand the sickening realization of what the situation is. The painful feeling of helplessness at your exposure, most often time to spectators who don’t see the utter horror of your mortified self and only see the humor, or opportunity for juicy gossip. The author doesn’t understand the thumping of you heart as you search for escape from who or whatever it is that caused you to be in the position.

I guess maybe the author wants us to revisit the strength in getting up and brushing off, physically or literally. I suppose they want us to revisit the ability to laugh at ourselves, or our circumstance, or even to tenacity to get up and build on the experience. The wonder of learning caution, or restraint, or even the skill of turning embarrassment to our benefit.

Maybe they want us to remember the class it takes to not lash out at the bystanders, or even the ones, if that is the case, who put us in the position to feel our faces heat up, and our sweat glands turn on like faucets, and our breath catch and struggle to escape.

Yeah, maybe the author wants us to revisit the better aspects, the ones that come after the fear and pain are gone. Maybe the author is a paragon of good intentions.

But tricky tricky. There’s a reason we keep those moments hidden.

13 thoughts on “Tricky Tricky…won’t get me”

  3. I’m with you. If it was that embarrassing, forget it. What most people do, I think, is fake it: Find something that was once mildly embarrassing but that’s now just a funny story. Which makes the whole thing pointless.

    Some people argue that the most powerful writing comes from writing about whatever’s hardest to talk about, and that sort of justifies the idea of the prompt. But to venture into that territory you need a safe group of people to share it with, the illusion that you’re only writing for yourself, or a highly uncensored way of living in the world. Without one (or two) of those, it misfires.

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      1. Good point. I hadn’t thought about it that way, only that you’d be writing to a bunch of people you don’t know well enough to trust. But you’re right: Troll Nation’s out there, and full of nasty little creatures. If we feel pushed to write about our embarrassing moments, we should do it on paper and keep it there until we know whether we’re ready to share it with the world.

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  4. Well said. Perhaps a follow up to the embarrassment question might be, “why I suck at everything” or “the ten top reasons you won’t like me.” Playing those negative tapes only reinforces negative thought. Learn, avoid repeats and move on.

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Any thoughts?