I’ve done many bad things when drunk. I’ve peed in closets thinking they were bathrooms, and not remembered doing it, thrown up in a friend’s Volvo (More about that later), but the funniest incident by far was in 1988. In that year, I decided to visit my friend Dan at SUNY Binghamton. One night, we went to a local bar called Sport Time. The bar was in a basement, dark, and very crowded as many college bars typically are. In a town like Vestal, New York there really isn’t much to do except drink, and that’s what my friends and I did, to excess.
After a few hours of drinking, I felt a very strong need to pee. Because it was ½ price wing night, I had to push my way to the bathroom to get through the throng of people. When I was almost there, I noticed a man blocking my way to the rest room. I waved at him like someone signaling another car to proceed.
“Go ahead.” I said, motioning him with my hand.
He said nothing but waved in the same way.
“Go.” I implored and waved.
Once again he said nothing again, but waved too.
“Go!” I shouted.
He said nothing but waved furiously like I had in response.
“O.K. I’ll go.” I replied.
And that was when I realized I had consumed way too much Southern Comfort, because instead of walking into the bathroom I walked right into a mirror. The worst part of the encounter was that I suddenly realized the “person” I was talking to wasn’t a stranger at all, but was me all along. Years later, I actually met someone who frequented that bar and he told me that the “Mirror incident” happens all the time. I hope he is right, because it would make me feel less stupid, and would put an all new meaning to the term, “Copy cat.”
Life Lesson 4: I think the moral of the story is that we all make mistakes, and it’s important to be able to laugh at ourselves and not take things too seriously. As William James once said, “What lies behind us, what lies ahead, pales in comparison to what lies inside of us.” or in this case what's in front of us as well.
No comments:
Post a Comment