Honesty vs Manners

Everyone has probably seen or experienced the time-old tale of someone with food stuck in their teeth, and the following dilemma of which is more rude; telling someone they have food stuck in their teeth or NOT telling them and letting them go around in public looking like an animal. The same scenario can be applied to any kind of bodily faux pas; a booger hanging out of the nose, food stuck on the face, one tuft of hair sticking straight up, mascara pooling under the eyes, and my personal favorite, farting. 

Farting, as gross as it is, is perfectly natural, and not usually something to be ashamed of. Unless you are doing it on purpose to try and poison the people around you, like my husband did one time on a car trip back from Vegas, you don't have to feel like a bad person for farting. However, I think very few people can do it in public without feeling embarrassed. I certainly can't. 

The reason I pose this karmic question is because today at work, someone walked by my desk and was literally farting with every step they took. It was hilarious. However,  I didn't feel it would be in good taste to laugh, so I tried my hardest to pretend like I heard nothing. It was really, really hard. I mean, people fart, it's ok. I've had bad bowel days, especially since being pregnant. I'll never forget the first time I sneezed and farted at the same time, and I'm just grateful everyone around me was wearing headphones at the time.

Being an empathetic person, I feel very strongly that when people fart in public, the best thing to do is to pretend like you didn't hear it and save them the embarassment of calling attention to it. However, shouldn't the person at least say "excuse me" and acknowledge they did it? I realize there is a thread of hope that I think everyone hangs onto when they fart in front of someone else, namely, "Oh... maybe they didn't hear it." Nope. We heard it. I personally will try to play it off like it's my shoes making weird squeaky noises, or my stomach being particularly raucous, (TOOT!! "Oh man, my stomach is out of control today! It must have been that [insert food] I had earlier.") which rarely works but makes me feel less disgusting.

In any case, I'm torn between really wanting someone to own up to their flatulance and clearing the air (both literally and figuratively), and being totally ok letting us both pretend like nothing happened, even though we are both clearly aware of the truth. I think there's something very admirable about someone who is willing to accept that nature happens, and just say, "Excuse me!" and move on. It takes courage and I find that level of integrity worth striving for. For he who smelt it doth not always dealt it, but he who doth deny it most likely hath supplied it.