We have all suffered awkward moments, and survived with a blush on our face and a scratched ego.

In fact, I’ve just suffered one myself. Having been at the receiving end of a couple of hundred innocent trees worth of junk mail – despite the 14-point, bold and underlined notice on the letterbox advising otherwise – I decided to ambush the perpetrator.

So early this morning, as soon as the patter of feet stopped outside my door and the letterbox creaked open, I revealed myself and fired a torrent of undiluted, haven’t-yet-had-my-first-espresso abuse.

I thought my performance would have made for a great Breaking Bad scene. The little old lady distributing parish pamphlets didn’t think so. In the end, I gave her a donation the size of a new church cupola and exited left.

Awkwardness has no forgiveness in heaven or earth- Ralph Waldo Emerson

How do we deal with such ego-bruising moments? You can throw money at it. You can let your blushing cool down for a couple of days, before recounting the moment to a biased friend, laughing it off embarrassingly and thinking that putting a funny cherry on a dry, flat cake will make an awkward moment less tooth-achingly bad. Or you can flaunt it with a hashtag.

Awkward moments were something which we used to sweep under the proverbial carpet. But nowadays, we have taken this old English word (the Oxford English Dictionary traces its roots back to the 14th century) and given it a positive makeover.

Now, awkward moments are exposed, tagged and celebrated. It’s like with emos and black-lipsticked sadness, or hipsters and grandpa cardigans – sources of embarrassment have become selfies-worth moments.

Stupid? Not really. After all, as David Sedaris, that great chronicler of embarrassing moments, shows us, being human is one long, line-fluffing audition. After all, we cannot all make James Bond entrances, or have the presence (and beauty) of Lana del Rey.

Being human is not about living within the narrow confines of Debrett’s – rather, it’s about taking our daily losses and celebrating them as victories.

techeditor@timesofmalta.com