Can We Stop Getting Embarrassed?

When one of my friends was little she wrote a letter to Jesus asking for him to make her parents be nicer to her. In the morning, she took the letter to the middle of her street and threw it into the wind knowing that Jesus would be able to find it. When she got home from school she found the note neatly taped to her front door. She describes this as one of her all-time desert island most mortifying moments. But I disagree- how can it be embarrassing to ask for what you want? To test your faith? Why should she be embarrassed by the courage it took to march to the middle of the street and proclaim somewhat publicly that your life isn’t perfect?

Anything that ends up embarrassing was worth doing. It’s an achievement. You did something out of your comfort zone. No one get’s embarrassed laying on the couch in your basement. I think someone like Kanye West probably gets embarrassed a lot because he thinks so highly of himself. Pascal says that we only laugh when snobs fall on a banana peel. If it was Tim Gunn, who people adore because he’s so earnest, it wouldn’t be as rebloggable a gif would it?

It’s embarrassing to lack the strength to do something because you want to, to accept the risks. It should embarrass you to be more aware of what’s the social norm than what your heart wants.