This won’t be long, because it just won’t be. Famous last words. Haha! Laughing at one’s self or with others as they laugh at themselves is one of the most gratifying things EVER.
So today, I was in Harris Teeter grabbing some stuff. (Coffee creamer being on the top of the list). I went to grab a bunch of bananas, and there was an employee in that aisle as well. The pineapples happen to be directly beside the bananas. He was standing very seriously in front of the pineapples and looked kinda dumbfounded. He had one in his hand and kept looking at it all over and shaking his head. I noticed this, but needed to move on–So I picked out my bunch of ‘naners, and went to go to the pasta aisle.
This employee quickly turned toward me holding the shriveled up, sad little pineapple in his hand. He said, “Ma’am! Excuse me. I have a question. If you were to be in the market for a pineapple today, would this be one that you pick out?”
I stopped and looked at it…the poor thing had seen it’s very last day. The top of it where usually you see the sprawling, proud and prickly pineapple leaves were nothing but dead, brown and crusty ends. I took it from his hand, and just by habit (because I buy a lot of pineapples and am used to picking them out!) I SMELLED IT. Like always! Such a normal thing for me. Well, I made eye contact with this employee after taking a big ‘ol pineapple whiff and he was just staring in bewilderment….Like…”WHAA are you doing?”
I quickly told him if you smell a pineapple, especially where the stem was, you’ll know if it’s a good one or not if you actually SMELL a pineapple-ly scent! If not, NOPE. Put it back. So, just as I suspected–I didn’t smell the scent I was looking for and told him, “Nope–I wouldn’t buy this one!”
And then I did it. I reached out with the pineapple and asked HIM to smell it. It was one of those moments that wouldn’t be awkward in the LEAST with certain people. But with his personality and the way he was trying to be “cool”, it was incredibly awkward I found out. BUT…my arm was already extended with this pineapple for him to smell, and we were committed to this. We’re in this. YOU’RE GONNA SMELL THIS PINEAPPLE.
You could tell he felt so weird and took a quick fly-by whiff of it, got all shifty-eyed and bewildered and said something to effect of he didn’t smell anything and that he would take it off the shelf…hahaha!!! Oh my word. I just smiled, walked away and lost it laughing at myself for making that poor awkward person smell that pineapple. It would have been FINE with a number of other personality types, but that poor guy…you live and you learn.
Another time, when referencing the notion of “laughing WITH others as they laugh at themselves”, was on a playground.
Our girls were playing, and I was chilling on the bench watching them have fun. There was a sweet grandma there playing with her adorable toddler granddaughter.
You could tell she was so into playing and enjoying her time with her little one. I saw her eye the slide. She called the little girl and said “HEY! LET’S GO DOWN THE SLIDE TOGETHER! SIT ON MY LAP!”
So, they were at the top and started down the slide…
About half way down, grandma’s hips got stuck…
Everything’s fine…{grandma tries to unlodge herself}.
Everything’s STILL fine…{more unlodging attempts as she wiggles her hips}.
And then it happened: It hits.the.fan. with this active toddler who doesn’t understand why their ride was so abruptly disrupted.
{Screaming…}
I make eye contact with Grandma and she BUSTS out laughing. I laughed along with her for quite awhile!
If you see someone brave enough to laugh at themselves, laugh with them! And most importantly: Learn to laugh at yourself. A good sense of humor will get you through a lot of things.
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