Today I watched Episode 9, “The Fur Coat.” It aired on December 10, 1951.
In this episode, Ricky rents a mink coat for his nightclub act, but Lucy thinks it is for her for their “anniversary.” Ricky doesn’t have the heart to tell her the truth, so he comes up with a plan to get the coat back. He asks Fred to pretend to be a robber and steal it!
The trouble is, a real robber comes in and tries to take it before Fred gets there. The irony is that Ricky practically hands the robber the coat because he thinks it is Fred. Lucy is disappointed by Ricky’s cowardly behavior, and Ethel tells Lucy the truth about the coat and the robber.
Lucy then plots to get Ricky back. She buys a fake mink coat and cuts it up in front of Ricky—and he loses it :) In the end, the coat goes back, and Lucy gets other presents for their “anniversary.” However, it was never actually their anniversary…
This episode had so many themes, but I am going to go with the idea that sometimes we don’t tell people the truth because we don’t want to let them down.
Ricky couldn’t bring himself to tell Lucy the whole story about the coat. He didn’t want to disappoint her or look bad in her eyes.
And it got me thinking—although we don’t want to do it, sometimes we have to disappoint people. It is not fun, but it is part of being a grown adult. It means having difficult conversations and sitting through awkward moments.
If we avoid disappointing people, we run the risk of the situation growing beyond our control and taking on a life of its own.
For example, I didn’t want to tell my kids this year that my dad had AML. But I needed to tell them, even though I knew they would be sad and disappointed that it meant he wouldn’t be visiting us anytime soon. My kids really enjoy his the time they get to spend with their grandpa.
By having these uneasy conversations, we are saying: I know who I am. I can deal with hard things. I care more about being honest than keeping up appearances. The goal is to have these conversations with care and compassion for yourself and those you are talking with.
