Last week there was a post circulating around Facebook about a new app called Yik Yak.
Yik Yak is a gossip app which is similar to Twitter, except you don’t need a username or even a password to post stuff on it.
So you can anonymously judge, bash, and bully anyone you want.
(You can read more about Yik Yak here)
It’s scary.
And disturbing.
I found myself unable to stop thinking about this for a while in the few days after I learned about the app.
What is wrong with people?
How can kids be so mean?
And then I thought about it.
And I didn’t like what I discovered.
About 10 days ago I went to a conference called Mom Grows a Business.
Three main presenters spoke throughout the course of the day.
There were also some other women there who briefly got on stage to talk.
The three main presenters were dressed to the nines.
Their hair was perfect.
Their makeup was flawless.
They were accessorized.
I haven’t been accessorized in about 5 years.
They were not dressed like me.
Their outfits were from places like Ann Taylor.
But I didn’t snicker.
I saved that for one of the next women who got on the stage.
Her name was Tova Gold, and she has a website called Finding My Muchness.
She was not dressed to the nines.
She was dressed like…
Like Number 7, my two-year-old, had styled her outfit.
She had on vertical stripes.
And horizontal stripes.
Every color of the rainbow.
And sequins.
Lots and lots of sequins.
And I thought to myself,
Who the hell is this chick?
And what the fuck is she wearing?
I was sure she was a total nut job.
Then she started talking.
Talking about how she had a miscarriage at 23 weeks and lost her twin girls.
How she had lost her muchness.
How she was overcome with loss and grief and
“to counteract the negative feelings, I instinctively started wearing sequins. I know it sounds silly, but little bits, here and there, really made a difference in my day to day moods. I found it was a lot harder to focus on being depressed when I was physically forcing myself to sparkle!”
Even in talking about her horrible loss, she made me laugh.
She was funny.
And engaging.
And intelligent.
And pretty awesome.
And just moments before,
while I wouldn’t have posted anything on a gossip app,
I was thinking some pretty douchey thoughts about her.
No, I wasn’t publicly humiliating someone on Yik Yak,
but I was silently doing it in my head.
I thought I was beyond that.
I guess I was wrong.
Thanks, Tova.
You want to help people find their muchness.
And you do.
But in some cases,
well,
in some cases, you help people find much, much more.
I’m back to 2nd! Now let’s get my ass up to #1! I need your votes!
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