Costumes
I had to smile while watching news reports of the CEO of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg’s, testifying before the United States Senate. I smiled because the dot.com California geek had donned the costume which matched of the male members of the United States Senate – a suit, white shirt and tie. He makes an effort to not draw attention to his playful self in light of the serious issues he was there to discuss.
Everyone who has any regular contact with me knows that my work costume is also a shirt, tie and dress pants. A supervisor of mine told me years ago to dress in a costume which is more likely to communicate to clients that I am there to take them and their issues seriously. I am not sure that his still the case since most or many of colleague’s dress in an open collar sport shirt and dress trousers or even jeans.
I have many other costumes. I have my gym costume, my biking costume, and my home chore costume. Occasionally I don my black tie costume.
An increasing number of people have more permanent costumes of full bodied tattoos, sleeves or just an addition to other costumes.
There are gang costumes, hard hat costumes, miner costume, prison/jail costumes and professional costume such as the white coat. Thankfully, today women have more options in terms of costumes in this and many other countries.
Some of our costumes are in the form of how we carry ourselves or present ourselves to the world – our dance. We have all met the people whose primary costume is the scowl, the tense body, the stay far away from me, the come let me comfort you or walk by our side or the I am filled with the joy of life and nothing you can do can take that away costume.
There is a danger of confusing a person – ourselves or others – with the costume. We are much more and sometimes less than our various costumes. I doubt that Mr. Zuckerberg, his Facebook colleagues or his family are going to begin to think of him as a rigid, obey all the rules, impress others as this very wealthy man, I am better than you person. I think his choice of costume for the Senate and House hearings was very intentional and that he knew he was not suddenly transformed into “a suit”.
I often suggest to people that they have fun with costumes. If, for examples, one finds oneself falling into the trap of taking oneself very seriously, drowning in self-pity or otherwise, sabotaging one’s ability to choreograph a dance which is consistent with core needs and values I suggest that they design and wear another costume. Perhaps a 1 yard by 1 yard hankie to dramatically wipe the tears of self-pity would be helpful. The goal, of course, is not to ridicule ourselves, but to accept that, at times, us humans are pretty silly. If we can learn to laugh with ourselves we can often then move on to a new, more life affirming dance. The costume might help us see the trap into which we have put ourselves.
If we find ourselves falling into the trap of taking our job so seriously that creativity is zapped with the stunt gun if it comes anywhere near us, then we may need a very serious costume which allows us to see the trap into which we have inadvertently fallen.
Children often use costumes to explore parts of themselves. We adults may need to again “become as little children” and have some fun playing with various costumes.
Written April 11, 2018
I had to smile while watching news reports of the CEO of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg’s, testifying before the United States Senate. I smiled because the dot.com California geek had donned the costume which matched of the male members of the United States Senate – a suit, white shirt and tie. He makes an effort to not draw attention to his playful self in light of the serious issues he was there to discuss.
Everyone who has any regular contact with me knows that my work costume is also a shirt, tie and dress pants. A supervisor of mine told me years ago to dress in a costume which is more likely to communicate to clients that I am there to take them and their issues seriously. I am not sure that his still the case since most or many of colleague’s dress in an open collar sport shirt and dress trousers or even jeans.
I have many other costumes. I have my gym costume, my biking costume, and my home chore costume. Occasionally I don my black tie costume.
An increasing number of people have more permanent costumes of full bodied tattoos, sleeves or just an addition to other costumes.
There are gang costumes, hard hat costumes, miner costume, prison/jail costumes and professional costume such as the white coat. Thankfully, today women have more options in terms of costumes in this and many other countries.
Some of our costumes are in the form of how we carry ourselves or present ourselves to the world – our dance. We have all met the people whose primary costume is the scowl, the tense body, the stay far away from me, the come let me comfort you or walk by our side or the I am filled with the joy of life and nothing you can do can take that away costume.
There is a danger of confusing a person – ourselves or others – with the costume. We are much more and sometimes less than our various costumes. I doubt that Mr. Zuckerberg, his Facebook colleagues or his family are going to begin to think of him as a rigid, obey all the rules, impress others as this very wealthy man, I am better than you person. I think his choice of costume for the Senate and House hearings was very intentional and that he knew he was not suddenly transformed into “a suit”.
I often suggest to people that they have fun with costumes. If, for examples, one finds oneself falling into the trap of taking oneself very seriously, drowning in self-pity or otherwise, sabotaging one’s ability to choreograph a dance which is consistent with core needs and values I suggest that they design and wear another costume. Perhaps a 1 yard by 1 yard hankie to dramatically wipe the tears of self-pity would be helpful. The goal, of course, is not to ridicule ourselves, but to accept that, at times, us humans are pretty silly. If we can learn to laugh with ourselves we can often then move on to a new, more life affirming dance. The costume might help us see the trap into which we have put ourselves.
If we find ourselves falling into the trap of taking our job so seriously that creativity is zapped with the stunt gun if it comes anywhere near us, then we may need a very serious costume which allows us to see the trap into which we have inadvertently fallen.
Children often use costumes to explore parts of themselves. We adults may need to again “become as little children” and have some fun playing with various costumes.
Written April 11, 2018
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