A few weeks ago I rescheduled a cricket commitment (for two hours later) an hour before it was to take place. I was reprimanded by someone who felt that the reschedule was unnecessary and as they let rip at me, I pursed my lips. This worsened the situation because, then, above and beyond being reprimanded for the reschedule, I was being rebuked for pursing my lips. The defence had a valid point: I dropped the ball on an obligation and, when questioned about it, pursed my lips during the confrontation which comes off as disrespectful to the direction of the whole situation.

So, I remained quiet as I literally and figuratively zipped my lips: disappointed that as capable and equipped as I was, I dropped the ball in the first place which then led to this whole confrontation which further led to a misinterpretation of my emotional expression. That same week, though, I came across this meme of Olympic gymnast McKayla Maroney which did the rounds this-time-last-year during London2012. In hindsight, I couldn’t help but laugh at the thought that this is what those pursed lips must have looked like to the person reprimanding me:

 

 

Maroney explained the demeanour behind the moment as:

“It’s more just a shock, I wasn’t focused on getting the gold medal. I wasn’t worried about that. I just wanted to prove to everybody that I could hit two vaults … And that’s what I’m disappointed about. I have just trained so hard and on this day it didn’t matter.”[1]

Perhaps next time, one should just not purse their lips at disappointment – it could be taken hilariously out of context, saddled with an ungrateful little bitchy caption.