Friday, June 27, 2008
So in a pinch if you were in trouble - who would you rely upon, a relative or a stranger?
Before you answer so quickly, let me tell you a vacation story.
So there I was in the heat of a Southern Missouri morning. With my extended family, we were at a lovely resort overlooking a calm lake and enjoying each other's company while miniature golfing, and meanwhile Becca was working on her monkey bar callouses. I was with Becca - not because I am too worried about her on the monkey bars, but because I notice that strangers are QUITE worried that Becca will fall to her death.
So there's the first hint - here I am nonchalantly watching Becca hang 20 feet in the air and other moms are sort of walking around with outstretched arms thinking she's going to crack her head open.
It had rained the night before - really hard. If you haven't been watching the news, let me tell you, people in the Bible Belt are thinking they are going to see Noah float by any moment now. So the ground was extremely wet.
I started to walk down the hill between the playground and the miniature golf course - when WHAMMO - I slid on the wet grass and being in flip flops and on an incline and in complete slush, there was no saving myself. I went down. Kind of flat on my back. (and I might have made a little "umph" noise - I'm not sure)
And this is when anyone witnessing the event could easily tell exactly who my relatives were, and who the strangers were. My relatives laughed. Hard! And pointed! And made sure any relatives that had not seen the whole event, at least saw the aftermath! So they could laugh TOGETHER!
Including Becca, whom I had been spotting! (Casually, maybe, but I woulda caught her...)
(in fact if you are related to me - you're laughing now! QUIT IT)
The strangers rushed over and said "Oh my gosh! Are you OK? Can I help you up? Are you sure?"
And that made the relatives laugh even harder if there was such a thing. Blanche from Streetcar Named Desire did say "I've always depended on the kindness of strangers" - yeah baby.
5 comments:
You're right, I laughed when I read that, because I could picture it. And because I laughed when Todd flew ten feet up in the air when he slipped on ice taking the garbage out a few months ago. And because I did the exact same thing two weeks ago when I slipped on water under the dishwasher and landed actually IN the dishwasher and gashed up my arm.
A-nony-moose (as in "Mickey Moose," or perhaps even "Minnie Moose") linkage:
http://www.newsfromme.com/archives/2008_06_20.html#015428
Well. It's funny. But he did not slip and fall on his arse during the performance. I give it a 9.
My family would have laughed, too! My guess is they knew you weren't seriously hurt...only your pride...so they could laugh. If they really thought there was a problem, they would be there...but still...
Mel
My personal theory is that it's a built-in reaction... if you laugh it means the fall isn't serious. It's instant denial of any serious injury in the ole brain. Like the America's Funniest Home Videos phenomenon... if they're showing me this video of a guy slamming into a redwood tree on his sled at breakneck speed, it all ended up ok and we are all allowed to laugh at it now...
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