Losing Face, Gaining Wisdom

In Japan and Thailand it is considered in very poor taste to show anger. Anger is judged to be a weakness and, if a person gets mad, he loses face. In that case, I lost face in a very big way last weekend!

I was at the Jamaica High School track training for a possible new record – running with a raw egg balanced in a dessert spoon, but instead of holding the spoon the traditional way in my hand, I was trying to run while holding the spoon in my mouth. It was really difficult and I had no doubt that I looked absolutely ridiculous!

I learned a lot from that encounter. It showed me that a little kindness goes a long way and that anger is always the wrong response. Now that I am in a better space, I can almost admire the kid I threatened. One thing is for sure, he has a lot of guts. You need that to balance an egg on a spoon in your mouth in public. He also has good speed and he certainly demonstrated good balance. Come to think of it, he has all the makings of a future egg and spoon balancing champion! If I had only known that earlier, I would never have gotten so mad at him in the first place!