Musings

The other day I was reading an awesome new newsletter called Lenny which is put out by Lena Dunham and Jenni Konner. It's a great newsletter full of interesting articles. Some I've read have been very serious, and some funny. It's a nice balance I think. I was reading a hilarious piece by the amazingly talented Jenny Slate. As I was reading the article, she was talking about a quirk of hers. She was mentioning that she could see where other people wouldn't appreciate it, but that she loves it about herself. Those were her exact words. "I love this about myself". I have to admit those words took me off guard for a minute. Not in a bad way, but in a world where we are supposed to change every little thing, or take a pill to wash away our quirks, to see someone love something different about themselves made my day. I have asked if not every, almost every boyfriend I have ever lived with if they could just love some of my quirks instead of getting annoyed. Since I currently have felines for roommates, I think we all know the answer.
Just like how it's almost second nature to talk away compliments, I think it's second nature to hide our quirks from the general population. And it certainly is not the norm to say out loud that you love or admire anything about yourself. It's funny, it's drilled in our heads to love ourselves, but we aren't really supposed to talk about it. We need to keep it to ourselves, like a dirty little secret. We live in such a weird world with such strange, conflicting messages.
I hope that at some point in my lifetime, those words "I love that about myself" aren't so startling and unusual. Loving things about yourself doesn't make you arrogant.
Anyway, just my random thoughts on something that I've been thinking about a lot. I feel like as I've been on my journey to health, I've mentioned to different people in my life that I'm proud of something I've done, and I feel like I've gotten some side-eyes. It made me feel weird, like I was being arrogant, and it kind of silenced me, at least with those people.
I hope you check out Lenny if you haven't already. I'm always happy when it shows up in my inbox. And if you haven't heard a lot about Jenny Slate, search around. She is on this show called The Kroll Show and one of the skits where she plays one of two PR type people named Liz is seriously enough to give your abs a hardcore workout from laughing. She also in an excellent movie called Obvious Child.