Saving Face

I read a great quote in a sports column this past week which was attributed to former Notre Dame coach Lou Holtz. He said, “The best way to save face is to keep the lower part of it shut.”

Heeding this counsel a little more regularly may improve ones success in life.

In just the last three days I’ve found myself in situations where I have:
- offended someone
- was a bit ‘too honest’ and scared someone
- made gross errors in choice of words which led to a complete misunderstanding of my intent
- prematurely opened my heart and at probably the wrong time.
- have had even things I didn’t say attributed to me

Usually I feel fairly confident in my ability to communicate. Apparently it’s not the ability that I may be lacking, rather the mechanism that I choose to operate within.

The worst is when these words and thoughts are translated to paper; or in a blog. One rule essential to follow is to not write out of emotion. Yet here I am, doing something completely contrary to what I preach.

I wish I could just write blogs about farting dog books or celebrity golf rankings. Yet I can’t seem to be so superficial in everything. There is more to life (and me) than that.

So as I pen this small little interlude to hopefully something much better for future blogs, I am feeling a whole host of various emotions. Not all bad, but definitely not all good. They simply range from happiness and gratitude to disappointment and frustration.

I’d like this little piece of work to be entertaining at times, inspiring at others, but ultimately worth reading. Since the Writers Guild has gone on strike, quite possibly so have my thoughts of entertainment or inspiration.

Without saying too much, I apologize for the rant. Sometimes it isn’t about saving face. Sometimes its more about communicating the feelings or ideas even if they don’t always come out right. It’s about asking the questions to ensure what another says or does is being received correctly. I really don’t care about saving face, I’m more concerned with saying it the best way I know how and from the heart.

As a warning, this may turn into a quote book of various things I’ve said that were taken completely out of context or emphasis was added in the wrong way to make the comment mean something completely contrary to it’s original intent. However, that will be for another day when I’m in a funnier mood. For now, it’s kind of a ticked at the world moment that I just need to sleep off.

I wonder what Lou Holtz would say to that?