The Art Of Keeping It Real

One of my favorite bloggers to read is Stephanie Klein of Stephanie Klein's Greek Tragedy. She's one of those amazing writers who managed to turn their blogging into a book deal.

One of the things I love about Stephanie is that she's not afraid to keep it real. She puts all her laundry out there, clean and dirty. She doesn't hide the fact that she and her husband, Phil, have been struggling for quite some time, been to counseling, etc. And she frequently details those struggles on her blog (sometimes with her husband joining in) for God and everybody to see.

Maybe she does it because she is an attention-grabbing exhibitionist. I don't know. I like to think that she's performing a service for society by reminding us that maybe we'd all be a lot better off if we stopped pretending that life is a fairy tale, because it's not. Sometimes life sucks. Sometimes it sucks big huge donkey balls. And we're all just trying to find a way to deal.

I admire this about Stephanie. I admire that she's not afraid to shine a light on the complexities and sometimes the ugliness of marriage and relationships. Some of her readers, on the other hand, have a difficult time with her openness. They remind her that skeletons were meant to stay in the closet and that she shouldn't be discussing such things in a public forum.

I don't know why raw honesty makes people uncomfortable, but it does. Maybe it's because we spend so much time and effort covering up our own skeletons that whenever we see a femur sticking out we start to blush as if we were on a nude beach.

I've said all of this to say -- I have something to talk about. Something that is extremely personal and might make some of you blush or feel uncomfortable. I'm not bringing these things up because I'm narcissistic and need attention (even though I am and I do), but rather to break the cycle of hiding the imperfection that is my life. There's shame associated with hiding and honestly, I have nothing to be ashamed about. This is life. This is the stuff that many of us deal with and maybe if we talked about it more often, we'd find better ways to cope.

So, in the next few days (probably over multiple posts), with The Fiance's blessing, I will be sharing some things we have been struggling with lately. I will be revealing (and admitting) that despite my best efforts, my relationship is not perfect and I will explain how I'm maintaining my sanity through it all.

Stay tuned.