There is a commercial on TV right now. Actually, there is a plethora of commercials on TV right this minute. But the one I just watched was about these little Gummy Bears. I think they were called Haribo Golden Bears.
It goes like this. There is an ultra-modern meeting room, with a table full of young executives. In their 20 to 30s. Sleek, polished, groomed, pretty. And they are passing around a bag of these little delicious Gummy Bears.
But. They are speaking in little-teeny-kid voices, using kid-speak. “Yeah… my Gummy Bear is jumping over your Gummy Bear… all like this…..”
And on.
It is not particularly brilliant, cute, or funny. However, it DID remind me of a personal bend of mine. When we were kids, all of us… we used to cry when we were sad, laugh when we were happy, scream when we were startled or afraid, and bawl when we were upset.
If there was something in our nose, we picked it. An itch… anywhere…. and we would scratch it. If something tasted bad, we spit it out. And a putrid smell? The old nose pinch.
When something excited us, we would throw our arms up in the air and run wildly, hollering joyous exclamations.
Then, at a certain age, we started hearing that those types of things aren’t “grown up” or socially acceptable. We were directed to behave like a “little lady” or to “act our age.” So we stopped. We stopped reacting to things from our gut… our instincts… our intuitions. Squelched.
Fifteen million Americans have social anxiety disorder. This, does not surprise me. Now, I for one, am glad that certain behaviors have fallen to the wayside in the adult world. Like nose-picking…. and butt-scratching.
Well…. there are those few exceptions out there.
But for the rest of those inherent behaviors … I’d like to see us bring a few of them back out of hiding.
Last evening, I attended a Social Event. And. I am an Introvert. I have always been “wary” when it comes to being around people I don’t know so well. It takes a WHOLE lot of energy for me to be present in those arenas.
Albeit. Last night was a great night… as you may have noticed from my onslaught of Facebook posts. On the other hand, I felt like a Sand Crab visiting the Arctic. There were a couple of times… right during the middle of a conversation, where I REALLY wanted to throw my arms up over my head, turn on my heals, and run toward the door screaming… “Ahhhyyyyiiiiyyyyiiiiii yyyiiiiii.” Or maybe… pull my coat up over my head, and break into a verse of Little Jack Horner.
While it might have made me feel better, I think it would have made a few people uneasy.
Tradeoffs.
And just for the record…. speaking of uneasy… I saw three nose-pickers, and two butt-scratchers last night.
It’s all relevant.
I guess by final thoughts on this? If it feels true to our hearts …. our inner-most, deepest deep… that little voice within…. we should probably listen… and do.
Unless, of course, it will land you in a straight-jacket at Bellevue.
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“Telling an introvert to go to a party is like telling a saint to go to Hell.”
― Criss Jami, Killosophy
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“What is most personal is most universal.”
― Carl R. Rogers, On Becoming a Person: A Therapist’s View of Psychotherapy
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“Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions which differ from the prejudices of their social enviroment. Most people are incapable of forming such opinions.”
(Essay to Leo Baeck, 1953)”
― Albert Einstein
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