1/5/2011
I teach at Dallas Baptist University. If you have ever been there, you know it is an incredibly beautiful campus with an uplifting attitude of servant leadership throughout the faculty and student body. It can also be a very prim and proper place. That is certainly not a criticism, just an observation. However, if you know me, you know the struggle that I may have to fit into that mold. So, you would have to understand both the alarm and the hilarity of me realizing that I taught an entire class (last semester) with my zipper down. Yes, you read that right. Not just half way down, no, all the way down and gaping open when my hands are in my pockets (which is probably at least half the time).
It would be easy to think, “Well it must not have shown that much since no one said anything.” But when it was the first person that I stopped and talked to after class who told me of my predicament, I have to discount that rationalization. Bless her heart, she had to tell me three times. The first time, I just didn’t hear her. The second time, the alarm in my head must have been deafening my ears. The third time just made me laugh both in embarrassment and in realizing the ridiculousness of it all.
I ended up using the event in my next class for a lively discussion answering the question, “Should you tell someone if their zipper is down, or if something else is embarrassingly wrong with their outfit?” It was quite funny to see the shock on the faces of the students who had been in class on that day when I called them out for not saying anything to me. The class was split in half, much like my zipper. Ultimately, the class agreed on this answer: if it is something that is unquestionably unintentional, they would say something. I can go for that.
So what is the point in writing about it here? I’m not sure there is any bigger or deeper meaning to glean from this. Maybe the point is to just laugh off the embarrassments and know that it is OK that I only fit in the mold God made for me.
Dear Audra, What a clever title for the entry. Yes, those times of much embarrassment are best laughed about and let go. When someone points out "something" like that to me, I always comment "only a friend would be kind enough to alert me". And that was a delightfully funny way to let the class know you knew they knew too! Surely would have loved to be sitting in on that class. :) Love, Mom
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