7.11.2007

Falling is fun.

I've talked to a lot of people who firmly believe that it is best when they fall completely out of sight of other people. They explain to me that it's embarrassing when people see you fall, and how dumb they feel afterwards.

But i've laughed heartily alongside these same people when we see a candid of someone tripping and falling, and the sheepish look they cast around wondering how many people -- if anyone -- saw their blunder. So what i'm wondering is this: If we can get so much pleasure out of watching someone do something which is - granted, in no way elegant, sexy, smooth, etc, why do some many people hate being that person?

I, for one, love it.

Generally speaking, when i eat it -- for a good reason or for no reason -- i'm getting up laughing at myself as much as any onlookers. One of the first things i do is look around, hoping that someone saw what just happened to me. No sheepish grins for me, just a shit-eating "did you just see that??" look cast out to strangers as readily as friends.

Well, most of the time.

That wasn't the case this morning though. I finally got done doing whatever random stuff i was doing online, and realized i was going to be late for class. Seeing that it was beautiful out, i grabbed my sunglasses and longboard -- and with a random thought, my camera.

Running out the door, still stuffing my mp3 player into my pocket, i got to thinking about how i have yet to take my longboard out since moving into my new place. I was thinking this mostly because i now live on a rather steep hill -- not a good place to be on a longboard.

Yeah, you guessed it: i fell -- hard.

But instead of my normal comical glance around, i completely freaked out. My head was throbbing and bleeding, as was my right hand, elbow and knees -- and i soon found out that my should too was bleeding. Not only did i not glance around, but i quickly grabbed everything that had either been dropped or fallen out of my pocket, and speed-walked back to my place.

Honestly though, I think that today was a great experience for me: i really got a good taste what it is people feel when they get embarrassed about falling in public. What's been driving me crazy all afternoon though, is i have no idea if anyone saw it! And considering it was 1/2 a block from where i live, i'd love to know so i don't meet someone in 2 weeks asking, "Dude! Didn't you wreck hard on your longboard right in front of my house a week or two ago??"

No comments: