Falling With Style--A New Post Series
People analyze what is wrong with our society a lot. I think it might be classified as a national pass-time, right up there with baseball. I'm nothing if not American, so, even though I dislike this national pass-time most of the time, I will add my two cents.
I think one thing that has been lost is that it is okay to fail. So, I give you this maxim: "It is okay to fail." I'm sure that maxim will be published and someday my maxims will be studied in American Literature, just like I studied Rochefoucauld's in French Literature class. Now, this maxim is only true within reason. If a child comes home with a report card full of nothing but f's, it's probably time to discuss success techniques, and that's not fully okay. However, it's okay to get second sometimes. And it's okay to do something that you're not good at, or be not good at something in general.
What is important is that you do it gracefully. In Toy Story, Buzz Lightyear insists that he can fly. Woody says that that is not true. So Buzz Lightyear demonstrates, to which Woody yells, "That wasn't flying. That was falling with style!"
This becomes something of a mantra, as later on in the movies, the phrase will come back. But the point is, sometimes it's just important to fall with style. So, here is what my posts will be: me falling with style.
How am I going to do this? Let's start with this: I am a medical lab scientist. Failure tends not to be a really big option for us, because we take lives in our hands. We are going to fail sometimes, so our goal is for the failures to be minimized in size, scope and frequency and that that failures never leave the lab. You loaded the sample wrong. That is fine. Just make sure you don't release that result for doctors to make treatment decisions off of. But, because I'm a medical lab scientist, I am not super creative. So, the majority of my videos of falling with style will be undertaking fine arts endeavors with minimal polishing. This doesn't mean, necessarily, that I will take a total flop take. But it does mean that I'm not going to go to great lengths to always have perfection. Perhaps it is a song that I learned to play on the violin when I was sixteen, I pull it out and play it through a time or two before recording and posting. Maybe it's a short story that I wrote and then only checked for typos before dropping it out there for the world. Perhaps it's an Irish dance choreography that I came up with two minutes prior. It could be a piano piece that I've never really played before. The point is that they will not be perfect. But they will all be good enough for their intended purpose--falling with style.
You see these fantastic songs or mashups or performances on youtube, and it's easy to think that you need perfection and that because you didn't do it as well as that person, you fail. Remember that almost all of those "amazing" viral videos of people singing insanely and such have gone through hours and hours of editing. A lot of time, it isn't even all one take. I don't say this to say that they're not talented. They have the talent, and putting that much time and effort and attention to detail in to edit and perfect it on top of that isn't a slight to them at all. It's very admirable. But it's okay. And even if you could never sing like that, no matter how many hours of editing and no matter how skilled of editors were working on it, that's okay, too. You have other talents.
I was hearing that there is a new type of depression which some counselors are even starting to treat called "Pinterest-related Depression." This is the feeling of inadequacy that comes from looking at pinterest, and some people, especially 25-45-ish women, can feel so inadequate that it becomes a clinical depression. That's sad. It's okay if your bunny bread ends up on pinterestfail.com, or pintrosity. Everyone's bunny bread did, except for that one original person, who has some kind of mad baking skills. You have other skills. And if you can't sing a Let It Go/Let Her Go mashup that goes viral for being fantastically amazing, you can do this and laugh at your lack of skills:
I must admit, I have some ulterior motive in this project. I am terribly afraid of failure. As much as I know it's okay to fail. I think it's because I have a deep-seated, secret belief that if anyone knows I have faults, or I am not the best at everything, they will cease to like me. I'm an insecure person, sometimes. So, this is somewhat therapeutic, where everyone gets to see those performances that I use to cry after giving at a recital. And I know, cognitively, that my family and close friends will still love me. People that already hated me will continue to hate me and but there's nothing I can do to change that, so so be it.
Of course, I fully understand should you not want to watch, listen to or read these posts. They are, after all, imperfect. In which case, whenever you see the title, "Falling With Style," you are welcome to skip it. I'm sure people do that with my book reviews that aren't big book people, and that's fine. I have a strict smorgasbord policy when it comes to my blog readers.
So, today's falling with style is "I Can't Help Falling In Love With You," played on the ukulele and sung. Now, I am not the singer in the family. Sarah likes to sing, Beth won classical voice competitions. I'm an alto. And untrained. And I don't terribly enjoy it (though the lab assistants that happen to come by my desk and hear me burst out into song while working may disagree). Furthermore, I have only been playing ukulele for less than two months. But that's the point of falling with style. It's not perfect! And yes, I am wearing Bambi scrubs.
I think one thing that has been lost is that it is okay to fail. So, I give you this maxim: "It is okay to fail." I'm sure that maxim will be published and someday my maxims will be studied in American Literature, just like I studied Rochefoucauld's in French Literature class. Now, this maxim is only true within reason. If a child comes home with a report card full of nothing but f's, it's probably time to discuss success techniques, and that's not fully okay. However, it's okay to get second sometimes. And it's okay to do something that you're not good at, or be not good at something in general.
What is important is that you do it gracefully. In Toy Story, Buzz Lightyear insists that he can fly. Woody says that that is not true. So Buzz Lightyear demonstrates, to which Woody yells, "That wasn't flying. That was falling with style!"
This becomes something of a mantra, as later on in the movies, the phrase will come back. But the point is, sometimes it's just important to fall with style. So, here is what my posts will be: me falling with style.
How am I going to do this? Let's start with this: I am a medical lab scientist. Failure tends not to be a really big option for us, because we take lives in our hands. We are going to fail sometimes, so our goal is for the failures to be minimized in size, scope and frequency and that that failures never leave the lab. You loaded the sample wrong. That is fine. Just make sure you don't release that result for doctors to make treatment decisions off of. But, because I'm a medical lab scientist, I am not super creative. So, the majority of my videos of falling with style will be undertaking fine arts endeavors with minimal polishing. This doesn't mean, necessarily, that I will take a total flop take. But it does mean that I'm not going to go to great lengths to always have perfection. Perhaps it is a song that I learned to play on the violin when I was sixteen, I pull it out and play it through a time or two before recording and posting. Maybe it's a short story that I wrote and then only checked for typos before dropping it out there for the world. Perhaps it's an Irish dance choreography that I came up with two minutes prior. It could be a piano piece that I've never really played before. The point is that they will not be perfect. But they will all be good enough for their intended purpose--falling with style.
You see these fantastic songs or mashups or performances on youtube, and it's easy to think that you need perfection and that because you didn't do it as well as that person, you fail. Remember that almost all of those "amazing" viral videos of people singing insanely and such have gone through hours and hours of editing. A lot of time, it isn't even all one take. I don't say this to say that they're not talented. They have the talent, and putting that much time and effort and attention to detail in to edit and perfect it on top of that isn't a slight to them at all. It's very admirable. But it's okay. And even if you could never sing like that, no matter how many hours of editing and no matter how skilled of editors were working on it, that's okay, too. You have other talents.
I was hearing that there is a new type of depression which some counselors are even starting to treat called "Pinterest-related Depression." This is the feeling of inadequacy that comes from looking at pinterest, and some people, especially 25-45-ish women, can feel so inadequate that it becomes a clinical depression. That's sad. It's okay if your bunny bread ends up on pinterestfail.com, or pintrosity. Everyone's bunny bread did, except for that one original person, who has some kind of mad baking skills. You have other skills. And if you can't sing a Let It Go/Let Her Go mashup that goes viral for being fantastically amazing, you can do this and laugh at your lack of skills:
I must admit, I have some ulterior motive in this project. I am terribly afraid of failure. As much as I know it's okay to fail. I think it's because I have a deep-seated, secret belief that if anyone knows I have faults, or I am not the best at everything, they will cease to like me. I'm an insecure person, sometimes. So, this is somewhat therapeutic, where everyone gets to see those performances that I use to cry after giving at a recital. And I know, cognitively, that my family and close friends will still love me. People that already hated me will continue to hate me and but there's nothing I can do to change that, so so be it.
Of course, I fully understand should you not want to watch, listen to or read these posts. They are, after all, imperfect. In which case, whenever you see the title, "Falling With Style," you are welcome to skip it. I'm sure people do that with my book reviews that aren't big book people, and that's fine. I have a strict smorgasbord policy when it comes to my blog readers.
So, today's falling with style is "I Can't Help Falling In Love With You," played on the ukulele and sung. Now, I am not the singer in the family. Sarah likes to sing, Beth won classical voice competitions. I'm an alto. And untrained. And I don't terribly enjoy it (though the lab assistants that happen to come by my desk and hear me burst out into song while working may disagree). Furthermore, I have only been playing ukulele for less than two months. But that's the point of falling with style. It's not perfect! And yes, I am wearing Bambi scrubs.
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