Comments on: Hokey Pokey Revival

By: Carrie Atkins

Carrie Atkins — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 02:52:22 +0000

I used to be a “little toe in” sort of girl. I don’t know what I was afraid of. Or maybe I do know. REPERCUSSIONS, of course. All girls seem to be trained early in the art of REPERCUSSIONS, and how they should be avoided at all costs.

Looking at it today, from the perspective of a half century of life, I wonder how I could have been so stupid. I spent my youth trying to fit in, trying to please my mother, trying to make people like me, denying my nature and changing myself to be someone people wanted to be with — basically wasting my life pretending to be someone I was not. And for what? I married a person that was all wrong for me. I wore clothes that I hated, but my mother approved of. And where did it get me? Precisely nowhere.

Today, I haven’t the energy to maintain those facades. And guess what? I LOVE my life. I have a husband who loves me for ME, not for what I pretend to be. My mother does not, and never will approve of me. (Her loss.) I’ve had enough REAL trauma in my life to know that you have to jump in with both feet and, you know, shake it all about!

Thanks for writing this, Melissa. I apologize for whatever I was when we were in high school. That wasn’t me. It was a mishmash of what I thought others wanted me to be. And how stupid is that?

By: dearpru

dearpru — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 17:41:05 +0000

To live life authentically is the most difficult task we have as humans. By the way, I find it a helluva lot easier to be authentic in Vermont than in Los Angeles.

By: Donna

Donna — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 00:03:51 +0000

Loved this blog. It made me cry.
What´s that about?

By: cfinhollywood

cfinhollywood — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 18:09:25 +0000

When someone tells me I look great, I usually say something like, “It’s nighttime, that’s probably why.” When someone congratulates me on my blogging, I usually say, “Yeah, but I’m too old to work for free.” I’m working on reversing these stupid, knee-jerk, wannabe self-deprecating but actually self-demeaning responses. And thank God “the girls” are there to point out the pattern. I’m so grateful!

By: Cathy

Cathy — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 15:13:36 +0000

I’m putting my left foot in, taking my left foot out and then the next foot, the hands and eventually the whole body. Thanks Melissa for being an all-in kind of gal. Shake it all about!