Falling and failing

 I just saw a kid fall flat on his knees while playing in the park. I expected him to start crying immediately, but I was astonished to see that he looked up with glimmering eyes and the biggest smile on his face. He was amused and he was happy. He checked himself to see if he was hurt, dusted himself off and starting galloping away again. He was unbothered about who saw, he wasn’t embarrassed or ashamed of ‘falling’ or ‘failing’. This incident was as simple as it looked. You fall, you evaluate your injuries, and you move on and continue your journey. 

But we adults don’t see it that simply, do we? Why is it that when we fall, our immediate thought is ‘Gosh I wish no one saw’ and our self talk goes from ‘I am so embarrassing’, ‘Why am I so clumsy’, to ‘I hope I haven’t broken my phone’. Only after we pay enough heed to our cluttered thoughts, do we even bother to check if we have hurt ourself. Why are we so bothered with external reactions, that we barely pay heed to internal consequences. 

When and how and why did other’s opinions of us become so important? Why has falling, realistically and metaphorically, become a taboo? Why do we put this insane amount of pressure on ourselves to be ‘picture perfect’, incapable of failing or making mistakes. It’s heartbreaking how we’re so scared of imperfection, when it is at the core of being human. 

I do wish to feel the innocent happiness the kid felt after his fall, thoughts unhampered by external opinions. It really did look like a free world in his mind.