p1000105Happy Friday, people!

This week’s Formerly/Finally Friday star is Jennie, one of the kindest, most spiritual and generous women I know. When she told me what her Formerly was (Formerly Rude, in case you can’t read her sign) I was shocked. She declined to elaborate (English is not her first language) but said, “I wasn’t always so nice.”

I’ve had the opposite experience. I was much nicer when I was younger, and more polite, too. Not that I’m spitting on people’s shoes or making unsolicited comments about people’s bad haircuts. There’s a difference between plain polite (sensitive to people’s feelings and respectful of their boundaries) and sucking-up-my-true-feelings-so-people-will-continue-to-think-I’m-nicer-than-I-really-am polite. It’s that second one that I’m so over.

With the exception of Jennie, I’ve not met a Formerly who hasn’t moved in this direction over the years. The reasons are numerous, but for me mainly boil down to not caring as much that everyone likes me (a good thing if you’re going to pour yourself into a book and send it out for critics to review!), and an overall desire to live closer to the truth–even if the truth means saying something unpopular.

So: Formerly Polite, Finally Honest. Are you with me on that?