Nov 13, 2023 3 min read

Recently, I was telling a story about the time I learned about the recall function on Microsoft Outlook. When I was working at The Walt Disney Co. in Burbank, Calif., I wrote an email to a vice president in Parks and Resorts and spellcheck flipped a word on me. It had inadvertently changed the word inconvenience to incontinence right before I hit “send.” I didn’t notice it until the email was flying into the stratosphere. I believe I physically gasped and used a curse word that translates roughly to “whoops.”

The message I wrote read, “Sorry about the incontinence, but I have to move Thursday’s meeting.” He wrote back, “No problem. But I want you to know I am fairly regular. I get lots of fiber.”

The recall button didn’t save me in time, but I was lucky the VP had a sense of humor.

As I retold this story about the perils of relying on spellcheck or Grammarly, my friend said, “Why do you do that?”

“What?”

“Tell everyone your mistakes?”

The answer seemed obvious to me. “Because they’re funny.”

More than once, I’ve shared the story about how I tripped on the street in Paris and had to roll out of the way of oncoming traffic, somersaulting to the curb.

I’ve retold a story about how I can’t wear a white shirt. Every time I wear white, it becomes target practice for copier ink, spaghetti sauce, dripping paint, etc.

Side note: I am wearing black today and I just spilled yogurt on myself. I suppose the color of the shirt doesn’t matter. The bottom line is … I’m a klutz. I’ve learned, the hard way, to always keep a Tide stick in my desk drawer.

But I digress, like I do. I don’t tell these stories to look like a buffoon, although it’s easy to assume that. I make mistakes. Then, I share them.

Yes. I’m embarrassed, but that hot flush of humiliation eventually goes away, and I have no choice but to divulge my secrets. If I hold on to these occasions of nitwittery, keep them inside, I feel shame. Shame and its sister Worry, if you didn’t know, are completely useless emotions.

The fact that there’s spellcheck in the first place should prove that I am not the only violator of the English language.

I can’t be the only person to be unable to slurp up ramen without wearing it. The fact that there are Tide sticks should prove I’m not the only one who wears my food like it’s a fashion statement.

When I was a kid, I watched reruns of “The Dick Van Dyke Show.” Sometimes, I would tune in just to see if he did or did not trip over the ottoman in the opening credits.

I share my mistakes because they’re funny, AND they’re relatable. Make mistakes and share them. It’s how we learn from one another.

The Chevalier de Seingalt, Giacomo Casanova (yes, that Casanova), once said, “One who makes no mistakes makes nothing.”