Tuesday, August 9, 2011

on the pain of embarrassment

Walking down 20th street when a perfect encapsulated embarrassing memory flashed in front of me.  When I saw it in my mind it felt as if someone had punched me, hard and quick in the stomach, the tremendous feeling of embarrassment nearly stopped me from taking another step.  This happens from time to time, I'm not sure what triggers them, or why I can't be programmed to not remember the stupid things I've said or done, but each time it happens I hear Homer’s voice saying “Doh!” as I flinch in recollection.  Really, I hear it every single time.  I’m not sure what I heard alongside this feeling before the Simpson’s existed, but maybe I hadn't been alive long enough to thoroughly embarrass myself prior to 1990. 

2 comments:

  1. Oh I totally get the same thing, probably even with the same sound effect though I haven't credited it to Homer. It does feel a bit like your breath stops for a moment. Ugh. I guess the key is to never do anything embarrassing ever again.

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  2. hah, yes, if only that were possible! The one yesterday was particularly painful, and it was from 13 years ago! But clear as anything I could hear myself saying this ridiculous thing to my brother's best friend (who I was madly in love with at the time) and I just wanted to crawl underneath the sidewalk and make the memory go away.

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