Transcript
Mint Mobile Advertiser (0:00)
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Annie Weiberg (1:00)
We've all had those nights, the ones where sleep doesn't come easy. Sleep eludes us when we're too warm, too uncomfortable, too tangled in the stories of our own lives.
Kate Tellers (1:10)
That's where Chilipad by Sleep Me comes in.
Annie Weiberg (1:13)
The Chilipad works with your current mattress. It's a water based mattress topper that lets you personalize your sleep temperatures anywhere from 55 to 115 degrees. You can even program temperature shifts to trigger deep sleep phases. Everyone around me knows that I am not so nice when I haven't slept and so I love my Chilipad. Visit www.sleep.me moth to get your Chilipad and save 20% with code MOTH. This special offer is available for the Moth listeners and only for a limited time. Order it today with free shipping and try it out for 30 days. You can return it for free. If you don't like it with their sleep trial, visit www.sleep.me moth because every story deserves a good night's sleep. Welcome to the Moth. I'm Kate Tellers, and on this episode we're putting on our masks, getting our makeup ready, and donning our costumes. Comic Con, which is happening this week, has us thinking about things we do in order to become someone or something else, even if only for a moment. Whether it's the oddly aggressive Elmos in Times Square, the tiger mascot at your high school pep rally, or Mickey Mouse walking through Disney World, costumes can transform people. Give them permission to inhabit someone else with all that that entails. First up, we've got Annie Weiberg, who told this story at a Twin Cities brand center. Here's Annie live at the.
Annie Weiberg (2:46)
It was a beautiful summer evening in Minnesota, the kind where neighbors are outside talking to each other while their children play. I was located a block away from such a neighborhood gathering, but I was lying in the backseat of a police squad car, my heart racing, my head pounding. I was desperately trying to calm myself, a process made more difficult by the fact that from the neck on down, I was draped in the hot and heavy costume of an anthropomorphic dog wearing a trench coat. And after a few minutes, the officer in the front seat turned to me and said, look, you're not the first person to discover that putting on the head of McGruff the crime dog causes claustrophobia. But this, it is National Night out, and I am committed to delivering the crime dog to five neighborhood block parties. So I really hope that you can find a way to push through this. And with those words, I sat up, took a deep breath, and pulled that head on again. Now, what had brought me to this moment? Well, in the weeks preceding it, I had been looking for a way to become more involved in my community, and our local police department had an urgent need for someone who would commit to dressing as McGruff the crime dog and being escorted to a number of community events over a period of time. I had raised my hand, and National Night out was my debut appearance. Now, exiting that squad car, I quickly learned that in addition to making both breathing and anxiety control nearly impossible, the only way to see out of that costume was through the nose holes in my gruff's snout. And so the officer had to guide me up to a group of little children, where I proceeded to pretty much just stand there because it was taking everything I had to not pull that dog head off again. Back in the squad car on the way to the second block, party, officer not that friendly drove in judgmental silence. Somehow I made it through that night, but in the weeks that followed, I became only marginally more comfortable in that costume. And now, with each additional appearance, I felt my feet fear of failure ratcheting up, and my instincts were strongly telling me I needed to up my game and move beyond the lame high fives and waves and find a way to make McGruff more interesting. So I decided I would have him say a few words in a low and growly voice. So at the next event, I said, take a bite out of crime, and a little boy nearby shouted and pointed, hey, everybody, that's a girl in there. Now, I might have been tempted to shove that little brat, but I couldn't see well enough through the nose holes to be sure who had said it. But it was clear I was not going to be nominated for an Oscar in the best Costume Character, Pretending to like other people's characters Kids category. And now I was out of ideas. Now, a few days later, the chief of police called me and asked me to come in. And when I did, he thanked me for my service and told me that someone in the community had come forward who really wanted to take on the role of McGruff. And I knew the chief was lying, and he knew I knew I was lying, because nobody really wants to be McGruff. Clearly, he had recruited my replacement. But I wasn't angry with the chief because I figured he had been getting complaints. Because the truth was, I somehow managed to make an already creepy character even creepier. But at that moment, I was at a tipping point. Because for every other moment in my life, up until that one, I had associated failure with shame. But in this case, I had kept my commitment. And despite the poor quality of my performance, I had been trying my best. So in this case, failure was liberation. And I walked home from that meeting and the sky was a shade of blue I'd never seen before. And I know it was crazy, but I kind of felt like some little birds were escorting me home. I had no idea failure could feel so good. Thank you.