People are often unhappy, but they don’t think it’s socially acceptable to let it show. So they pretend to be happy.
I don’t pretend to be happy very often; if I’m unhappy, I let it all hang out. Once in a while in the office, when absolutely necessary, I fake being happy. But not very often.
My coworkers (mostly younger than me) know this, and come to my office and close the door and bemoan the fact that they have to play along with the majority.
I commiserate with them.
And sometimes I share this story with them:
For a while, Judy Garland and her daughter Liza Minnelli did a two-person show in Vegas together. One evening, after a show, they went to the restroom together. They were followed by a drunk fan. Judy went into a toilet stall and locked the door, but it didn’t slow the drunk fan down. “Remember the rainbow, Judy!” the fan kept yelling, hammering on the outside of the stall. “Remember the rainbow!”
“Okay, honey,” Judy said weakly from inside the stall. “I will.”
This went on for some time. Finally the drunk fan left. All became silent. “Ma?” Liza said at last. “Are you okay in there?”
Long pause. Finally, Judy Garland’s voice from inside the toilet stall: “Honey, I got rainbows comin’ out of my ass.”
As do I, every second.
No comments:
Post a Comment