The Spud Club
Some of us just look like potatoes.
Honestly, don’t you get tired of the tyranny of having to look like a supermodel? I’m all for feeling healthy and being strong and having vitality, as much as we are humanly able—because it is wonderful to give up something we have a basic allergy to, and to feel so much better not eating or drinking it. Sometimes that is sugar or wheat or alcohol—whatever, we are all different.
But let’s get real. I can’t speak for men, but as women we get so bombarded with the message that we have to look perfect, that we have to be perfect, that we have to buy something or join some club or do something to force ourselves into looking like supermodels. Some of us just look more like potatoes. Especially as we get older. Or we look like hobbits, or peasants. Whatever. We are just regular folks, just miraculously alive human beings.
I was at a party and some people were sitting by themselves in another room. I came in and someone said, “Oh, you decided to join in with the cool kids.” It seemed kind of funny at the time, and I am VERY sure that being funny was all that was meant by the comment. But I got to thinking about it and I thought— every person there was “cool”. There was no special group. If some of them had isolated themselves off, then they were the ones missing out on discovering how amazing the rest of the people there were. We all have stories.
There is no cool group. We are all cool. If you think differently, if you think you are cooler, or more special, then you are perpetuating your own loss because you are missing the stories.
However, if you have ever been ostracized by the people who think they are cooler, prettier, or more special that you are, I would like to make you an offer. I invite you to be a member of the Spud Club. You have permission to look exactly as you do. You are invited to celebrate and enjoy your life to the fullest, even if some people don’t hear your amazing story, or see the absolute wonder of you being the unique soul that you are.
There is an Italian proverb that goes like this: After the game is over, the King and the Pawn go back into the same box.
I invite you to be a member of the Spud Club, regardless of your age, ability, education, genetic make-up, family history, financial status, health, religious background, orientation, skills, or accomplishments. I invite you even if you don’t think you resemble a potato. That’s fine. You are from the earth. You don’t have to be perfect. You are human, and you belong. I welcome you.
Thank you, Deb! I’m signing up to be in the Spud Club. As you say, “we all have stories… we are all cool”. I, too, have been bombarded with and at times, bought into the supermodel message. I had to stop myself from playing that message to myself most recently when I returned from my trip to Washington and looked at the pictures of myself with my friends and immediately started telling myself “OMG look how fat I look” etc. Instead of seeing the smiles on our faces and the joy in our eyes at actually being together again, I was playing that “supermodel” tape in my head. When I told my roommate about this, she was taken aback. She said she didn’t understand how I could feel that way about myself when she sees how accepting I am of others and hears me telling other women how beautiful they look all the time. So YES, I want to be a member of the Spud Club for me. I need to remember that I may look like a spud but I have stories and I am cool and I can stop trying to be a supermodel and enjoy all those other stories out there too! What a gift!