Acting Without the Drama

September 25, 2008.  I talk about my daughter a lot these days.  If you had known me when my boys were her age, I did  the same with them.  Right around the ages of two through four, children are learning about the world around them and making some pretty spectacular observations.

One of my daughter’s that melts my heart every time is what she says whenever I tell her I’m proud of her.  She says right back, “I’m so proud of you, Daddy!”  It’s her natural response to the praise I’m giving her.  I’m not sure that she really understands what she’s saying, but she knows that she’s done something right.  Her face is radiant.  You can tell that it feels good to get the praise, and then she just wants to share it.

Why is it so hard for us to simply acknowledge our successes?  It seems that we either get arrogant about them or we try to diminish them.  Saying that we’re proud of something we’ve done well seems so…alien to us most of the time.

One of the challenges of not sharing our victories is that we are less likely to allow others to engage in this very healthy behavior.  When my children are justifiably proud of something they’ve done at school or at Scouts or in sports or whatever, I find myself wanting to tell them not to get too cocky.  “Watch it there, buddy!  You’re head’s gonna swell up so big that you’ll never be able to buy hats off the rack!”  (Actually, Hopkin heads, genetically speaking, are quite large.  )

I am an excellent actor.  I am an excellent teacher.  I’ve said it before in my blog, and I reserve the right to say it again.  I am also continually learning about my craft in both areas.  I think that that may be one of my greatest strengths.

I am also too intellectual and distant at times.  Knowing this, I occasionally overcompensate and become maudlin.  I float between arrogance and insecurity.  I am somewhat disorganized.  I snore.  I don’t always wash my face before I go to bed.

Didja notice?  I couldn’t do it.  It bothered me so much to put the positive out there without some mitigating negative thrown in to make sure that you knew that I know that I’m flawed.

But you knew that already, didn’t you?

So today, how about we assign ourselves the joyous task of basking in the light of some of our accomplishments.  No negative stuff to “balance” it out.  Just us enjoying the positives.  We’ve learned so much.  We’ve grown.  We’ve achieved.

Let’s celebrate!

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