Day 13 - The ability to laugh at myself

One day I went running out at Lake Hefner. When I got there, I saw that there was obviously another event planned for the day, because portions of the sidewalk were closed off  and a police officer was sitting, in his car, in the entrance to the parking lot. I parked elsewhere and decided to run what I could, where I could. I watched a few runners circumventing the blockade by running on the road for a little bit, then jumping over the tiny fence (about 2 1/2 feet high) and getting back on the trail. I thought it looked like a great idea, so I followed suit. I ran on the road, right in front of the police officer and when I had passed the place the race officials had marked off (so we couldn't run on the trail), I jumped over the fence. Well... sort of. You see, I've never been the agile, graceful type. I was kicked out of gymnastics for not being able to do a cartwheel and I've fallen just about every which way possible. I've even fallen while standing still. So of course I didn't lift my legs up high enough to clear the fence, and I face-planted into the grass on the other side (not literally, but knee-planted doesn't sound nearly as impressive). Then the cop got out of his car and asked, "Are you ok?" I was in panic/freak out mode, thinking "Oh shoot, I just bit the dirt doing something I wasn't supposed to be doing, and now the guy who was supposed to be keeping me from doing that thing is checking up on me!" So I did what we all do when we're embarrassed; I pretended like nothing happened. I quickly scrambled up and kept running, calling back to him as I continued, "I'm ok!" Awesomeness.

It was like this, only with fences, dirt, one person, and less devastating

             (So it was nothing like this. Fine. But it was the only picture I could find of runners falling.)

A few weeks later, I was driving down 23rd street in OKC. The corner of 23rd and 235 is a big intersection, and there are almost always a handful of people on the side of the road asking for money. I stopped at a red light and saw a man up ahead (I was 4th or 5th in line) asking for money. I looked through my wallet and found $2  and decided I'd give it to the guy when I got up to him I figured I could just roll slowly by and hand him the money as I went through the light. The light turned green, and I began to put my plan in action. I rolled down my window to prepare for the drop. Here's the problem, people. Our version of slow in our cars is quite different from a stationary person's version of slow. So I put the money out the window, but the guy missed the grab! At this point, I was driving past him already and getting ready to turn, so it looked like I was just holding the money out the window to tease the homeless guy! But I really wanted him to have the money. I couldn't think fast enough to put my foot on the brake (of course not, that would be too logical), so instead I just yelled, "I'm sorry!" and threw the money out the window, where it landed in the street. Anyone watching could have imagined me saying, "You want it? You want it? Ha! Then go get it!" All I was trying to do was help!

I learned awhile ago that I have to be able to laugh at myself if I don't want to be miserable all the time. Life is nothing if not funny, and finding the humor in life sometimes means having to laugh at ourselves. If I couldn't laugh at myself, I'd still be shamefully embarrassed of both of the situations I described to you. But you know what? That's life. That's what happens. And if we can't laugh, we might cry. I'd prefer to laugh. So because I know I'm going to do more stupid things, probably even before the end of the day, I am thankful that I have the ability to laugh at myself.