Someone I Adore

As part of the blogging world, it is natural to seek out writers who are a bit like yourself.  My favorites tend to lean towards the irreverent, absurd, and funny.

And then there are certain posts that make me run like hell.  I call them the "String-'em-up-by-their-toes" posts.    A sampling:

Dear World:

The other day, a stranger/family member/total idiot said something very insensitive about me/my child/my life choices.  I think this person should cease to exist or take a year-long class on how to be better human being.

Signed,

Someone Who Has Never Said Anything Stupid in Her Entire Life

Then the comments from the angry brigade come rolling in:

"I would have hit her in the nose!"

"Did you call the police?"

"You should think about contacting her boss and report on what a colossal, insensitive, self-serving cad she is!"

These posts always make me sad and a little scared.  Mostly because I say the wrong things at all the wrong times.  I try not to.  But sometimes I just get flustered and nervous by an unexpected admission, and my mouth outflanks my brain. I really don't want the world to string me up by my toes because I suffer from the worst case of foot-in-mouth disease EVER.

Needless to say, I shy away from bloggers whom I know I would offend due to my inability to read from the sanctioned script.

And then I found Kat over at No Holding Back.  Kat blogs about motherhood and shares her experience on losing a child to Twin to Twin Transfusion Syndrome. 

Now anyone who has ever met me is shaking her head furiously and muttering "no, Marianne, NO." A mother who has faced one of the most horrendous things possible certainly does not need my kind of stupidity in her life, right?

Yet Kat also is one of those amazing people who can step away from her own pain and realize that the world is filled with crazy, nervous, stupid people.  And she doesn't force anyone to go to sensitivity training. She doesn't devote her blog to calling them out.  She simply tells her story and sometimes, stupid crazy people actually learn.  We learn from her wonderful writing and experiences, and not from a lecture and a dozen comments from the world of pitch-fork carrying angry bloggers.

I love Kat.  I think everyone should check her out.  Particularly this post, aptly named Awkward.

Thank you, Kat, for educating in a way that doesn't make me feel like the biggest dum-dum ever.  You are a gem.