Writing: Exposing One's Self

 Wish I had read Robin Marie's The Courage to Write: On the Radical Generosity of Letting Yourself Be Seen back in 1982. I was a chickenshit then. Poor TJ offered to work so I could write. I turned her down for two reasons. One was my being scared to expose myself; that my talent was not all that much. After making a public ass out of myself, after fitting myself into the category of sex offender, I decided I could not further embarrass myself. That I had taken suicide ad a solution,.I was left no choice but to write. 

I do not suggest anyone follow in my footsteps. Listen to Ms. Marie, instead:

"Exposure. It makes me ill every time. Even if it is just a little newsletter that sixty people read. I thought it would get better as I grew older and published more things, but it has not. Walking naked into bookstores; walking naked into social media posts. Practicing some extreme yoga of radical vulnerability on the page.

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I have come to believe ninety percent of art-making is about courage. The courage to listen to our instincts and the courage to trust them. The courage to believe in the value of ourselves and our work. The courage to devote countless hours (days, weeks, years) to something with an unpredictable outcome. The courage to risk rejection and critique and a bad review. The courage to resist the cardinal rule of capitalism: that money equates success.

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Revealing oneself is an act of radical generosity: letting oneself be seen allows others to do so the same. And this vulnerability creates connection; this connection creates community. Audre Lorde, again: “Without community, there is no liberation.”

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1/29/22