Mistakes are Hilarious

This post is basically just the last post in more words because it’s blowing my mind. I’ve never been able to watch slapstick comedy or shows like The Office that are basically about laughing about how incompetent people are. They seemed deeply mean-spirited to me– why would you find humor in someone else’s deep shame?

Which it turns out says waaaay more about me than it does about people who like the Office. I couldn’t watch these shows because my own shame around making mistakes was so great that watching other people do it on purpose in a television show about not-real people was too much to bear.

Some of that is starting to loosen up with some work I’ve been doing and I’m having a non-stop giggle fit. We are all wildy incompetent and ill equipped to meet the expectations we’ve set for ourselves. We are all playing dress up about what it means to be a contributing adult member of society.

The harm we do to ourselves and others is not funny, but it’s so much easier to meet with compassion when it’s clear that no one knows what the fuck they are doing and we are all making it up as we go.