Embarrassment
One truism of life is that we all have our emabarrassing moments. Fortunately in most cases of embarrassment, the statute of limitations expires rather quickly. Falling down in public, walking into a telephone pole, arriving at a party a day early, all are examples of brief encounters of embarrassment.
Of course, there are other moments of embarrassment where the shame never completely fades away. We cringe at the mere thought of those moments, seldom sharing the stories with even our dearest of friends for fear of ridicule and humiliation.
A long, long time ago, I was on the road working. I had just completed a job at a customer’s home, and I was looking over my schedule for the location of my next job. I felt the need to relieve myself, and decided to pee in the nearby bushes. In a brief moment of body miscommunication, I pooped my pants.
Stuck in the middle of nowhere, I sat gently in my truck and drove to the beach park which was a couple of miles away. There were no doors on any of the bathroom stalls, so I could only hope that no one would walk in while I cleaned myself. I won’t bore you with the details, but lets just say that a small amount of poo goes a long way. After washing myself the best I could, I decided to go home rather than continue with my work schedule.
Later that evening, my friend and coworker came by the house. He asked why I didn’t show up at our favorite lunch spot. I told him what had happened, and after he finished rolling on the floor with laughter, he asked what I was going to tell the boss. We both knew that there had better be a good excuse for not finishing the work schedule, or it could be my job. Being a good friend, he offered a few of his best lies that I might tell the boss, but I wasn’t quite sure if I could pull any of them off.
The next morning arrived and I was still unsure what I was going to tell the boss. The boss was an all right guy as far as bosses go, but he had shown in the past that he had no compassion for those that failed to complete the work schedule.
As soon as the boss saw me enter the building, he asked me to come into his office. He told me to close the door and have a seat, which was not a good sign at all. He sat behind his big desk, leaned back in his chair, and asked if I had completed all of my scheduled work from the day before. I told him that I had not. His eyes glared at me as he asked why. I looked him squarely in the eyes and told him the truth, that I had pooped my pants. He slowly leaned forward in his chair, looked down upon his desk, then confessed his shame and embarrassment of having the same thing happen to him once.