Family: They love you (you hope) and will (hopefully) forget the incident. Even if they don’t, the truth is that you probably have spent so much time around your family that you’ve embarrassed yourself more than once in front of them, and they have probably embarrassed themselves in front of you. All-in-all, while it’s never fun to embarrass yourself, a family member is not too bad of a person to have as a witness (see, my daughters watching walking down the street with one shoe on and one shoe off, a few weeks ago).
Strangers: Sure, it’s no fun to make a fool out of yourself in front of a total stranger, but unless the act is recorded on video and posted on YouTube, it isn’t that bad. You probably gave the other person a good laugh, and you will never see them again. Making a fool of yourself in front of a stranger might even be preferable to making a fool of yourself in front of friends or family, since the likelihood of future encounters with a stranger is minimal.
Friends: This analysis is similar to that of family, though this analysis only applies to embarrassing situations that occur when you are no longer in school. If you are in school, making a fool in front of friends or schoolmates is the worst type of embarrassment there is (as a sophomore in high school, I once threw up in school three times in the course of a day; I threw up once in front of the freshman class, once for the juniors and once for the seniors – finally the nurse sent me home, you know, because there were no more grades to throw up in front of). However, once you are out of school your friends, know you, rib you and forgive you. You will probably have some dirt on them and they know you well enough not to judge you on that one specific occasion.
Co-workers / neighbors / business associates / people who you casualty encounter on a day to day basis: I think this is the worst group to embarrass yourself in front of because you have such little time and so few interactions with the other party, during which time the other person will form his/her opinion of you. As a result, big picture assumptions and decisions are made by those people based on short and infrequent interactions. Worse yet, forced, repeated interactions with the other party require you to face the embarrassing moment over and over again. Of course, there is also the danger of getting labeled, for ease of recollection and identification - who wants to remember or attempt to pronounce the name “Avi”, when they can just call me something like “coffee stain guy”?
I recognize that my analysis might be flawed, lack categories and overlooks some important points - your comments and thoughts are appreciated. But, let’s move on to why I bring this issue up.
After an hour-long bike ride, I turned down my block to see my next door neighbor bringing out his recyclables to the curb (it was paper/cardboard day in New Rochelle, today). I have had some nice discussions with this particular neighbor, who is a very nice gentleman, and we get along well. As you know, I have been working on my “unclipping skills” and I have actually had the hubris to pass along tips to others, now that I am thought I was an expert. However, it is clear that I have not moved up to the advanced level of unclipping.
I steered my bike over to the curb where my neighbor was standing, with my left foot unclipped, and I put my left foot down to stabilize the bike. My neighbor extended his right hand, and I began to extend my right hand to shake his hand, as I started to unclip my right foot. He said, “Hey, how are you.” I said, “I am doing well, it’s great to see you,” as my hand reached half-extension. Then I looked as my neighbor and calmly said, “I am about to fall.” My neighbor watched, dumbstruck, as my almost-handshake turned into me keeling over on my bike, to my right, and me torqueing my body so I landed on my hands in a quasi-side push up (thankfully, my left foot was unclipped, so I could adjust). What I learned at that moment was that my neighbor has a great lawn with the softest grass – I knew it looked great before today, but now I know it feels great too. I then proceeded to unclip my right foot, stand up and began to explain to my neighbor why I made a complete idiot out of myself.
I have a feeling that the next time I wave hello to my neighbor, he’ll be thinking “Hey, tip-over guy!”, or something like that… I can’t think of a nickname, but if you can, please let me know. I might just get something for the person who comes up with the best nickname.
