You know those radio shows where someone tells their story and it's always beautiful and funny and inspiring and heartbreaking?

I LOVE them.

But this one time someone sent me a link to a video of *someone I knew* telling a story --

A story all about his horrible marriage and through a series of beautiful and funny and inspiring and heartbreaking events he meets this woman who is his soul mate and leaves his wife and listening to the story everyone would be so amazed.

But what he left out --

What he left out was how he had been a youth pastor.

And how his soul mate was this underage girl in his youth group.

And how he was secretly "dating her" until she was old enough for him to immediately marry her.

And he had also left out --

He had also left out the part where he had children and ditched them, and he also left out how his wife was this lovely woman who had the audacity to prefer he be a partner rather than King of The House.

And now when I listen to those stories I can't help but think --

I can't help but think how a literal rapist can tell us a story about how he found true love while describing the grooming and we might get all choked up as he tells it.

And I can't help but think as a storyteller --

I can't help but think how important it is as a storyteller to tell stories that are painfully and beautifully true and how much awful self awareness and vulnerability that requires.

And I can't help but think that audiences --

When we're in the audience we must demand stories that aren't just beautiful, aren't just what we want to hear, but are also unflinchingly honest.

I wonder how often I hear a story about a man's heroism and a call to the women in his life would prove him a villain. /End