And now, for some VIEWER MAIL!

And now, for some VIEWER MAIL!

Melissa, I have followed you for a long time. I think you’re videos are funny and I USED to enjoy your Stretch Mark articles. But last month you spent an an entire article telling us about your “issues” and how you needed to have surgery on them. Do you think we want to know about this?? Please remove me from your email list. You are ridiculous. 

Signed, 

Kathy 

Melissa, in your article about your hemorrhoids you talked about how badly you needed surgery. You even made the comment that you “wish someone would die” so that you could go in sooner for your surgery. Do you realize that there are people actually dying in our hospitals today? Did you know that one of my best friend me has a child who is in a children’s ward very sick right now? Do you hope that she dies so that you will have a bed? Is that truly how you feel? I think it is. I think I’ve been following the wrong person for far too long.

Signed,

Mary-Katherine 

Dear Kathy & Mary-Katherine,

If you both were still on my email list there is no way in heck I would be sending out this article. I’d be way too scared! (I may look like a confrontational person, I can assure you… I am not.) But, since we gladly removed you as fast as our chubby little fingers could possibly fly, I will now write the corresponding response:

Yes, Mary-Katherine. I hope thousands of people DIE so that I can have their hospital beds. Even though my surgery was outpatient and a bed was not actually needed. This might make me even more of a monster to you, but hey, I’ll take it. My hope is to eventually see thousands - if not millions - of people die so that I can go to PF Changs and not have to spend too long in the toilet. You found me out! You got me! I should be ashamed, but I’m not.

And to you, Kathy. You seem pretentious because most Cathy’s start with a C but yours starts with a K. So that says a lot about you right there. 

But what I want to say to you more than anything is this: I don’t regret talking about my hemorrhoids, I don’t regret talking about my weight. I don’t regret the day that I will tell you about my marriage or my sex life or how hard it is to parent my children. I don’t mind talking about hair loss, I don’t mind talking about facial hair. I don’t mind talking about cankels or adoption or that one mole I have that continually has a hair growing out of it that is so long I could braid it and put it up on Pinterest. 

This is who I am! I serve people. I serve them in this way and with these words, because it makes them feel less alone. And in a world that has made us feel alienated and ostracized and apart from community for so freaking long… It really does feel Kathy (with a K) like the very least that I can do. I hate you’re leaving. You know why? Because you won’t find a community as good and as honest as loving as this one, I promise you. And it isn’t because they aren’t out there, maybe they are! It’s because no matter where are you go, chances are, you won’t be happy. Transparency and vulnerability, they don’t serve you well. But I have a feeling in my heart, they serve everyone else just fine.

Love,

Melissa Radke

Some of you may wonder if I ate my Wheaties this morning. The answer is, no. (I am however on a little bit of pain medicine… And that does not help my anger issues one bit.) But the other thing that got me very riled up about these emails was that they were a slam on community and that is what we do best, David and I. 

We don’t have a team of hundreds. 

We did not bring in over $1 million this past year.

We don’t sell conferences for $8000 a head. 

But what we do, we do very well… And that is love people. And create safe spaces for them. 

Someone asked me the other day what I did for a living, and for the first time in my life I said these words. “I am a cheerleader and a storyteller. I tell my story, and then I cheer on other people to tell their‘s.”

In the coming weeks I am going to begin asking YOU to tell your story. You might not think you have one, but you do. I just hate that Mary-Katherine and Kathy will never have the chance to tell theirs. Our lives are our stories, after all....so let’s talk about them. 

Stay tuned!!

I love you,

Melissa