We’re flawed.
Have you ever been walking along and stumble over nothing but your own big feet? We all have. There’s nothing strange about that. But what do you do when that happens? Ok, you get up, of course, but what else?
You feel embarrassed, and… you look around to see if anybody saw you. Don’t lie. Don’t kid yourself. You do and you know it. Don’t pretend your above it. You don’t want to feel like your dignity is lessened. It’s part of the human experience, and it’s flawed. I do not know if it’s natural or learned, but it’s there.
You stumble and fall. You get up and brush yourself off, and you look around, already thinking how you will give a fake laugh and try to “blow it off” to others just in case they saw it. You have to save face, you know. And God forbid someone recorded it and you end up on a funny video show.
But what would a dog do?
When a dog stumbles over nothing but their own paws and falls, they get up, and… resume walking as if nothing happened. That’s it. Nothing else. There is no internal feeling of shame or embarrassment. They literally could not care less if a person or another dog saw them do it.
Think about this. Maybe this is one reason why dogs seem to be happier and less troubled than humans. They don’t sweat the small stuff. And a minor stumble is the small stuff. It doesn’t hurt anything, it doesn’t affect anything, we should get right up and continue on just like dogs do… but we allow emotional baggage to creep in.
Be more like a dog.
If being more like a dog means I get to lay around and nap too, I am alllll in!