Up: [[Sharing]] Course: True Confessions with Alison Luterman for 27Powers Create: 2024-05-15 Someone asked Alison about the vulnerability of publishing. The woman said that she does poetry readings only because no energetic connection can be felt when the writing is on paper and sent to unknown readers. And yet, she says, it's the thing to do. How does Alison handle it? Alison said that everyone is projecting on everyone all of the time. We can't control it so we have to let go of that. There is polarity in every meaningful activity. That sentence about polarity is my words. If I look at the writer's life as a job, I shut down because I no longer need or want a job. But if I see it as meaningful activity, or as living my passion, that's entirely different. Laurie (host of the class) said that she's more afraid of putting out work where she's hiding than she is of being vulnerable in her work. Hiding feels like death, like not doing what she is meant to do. That has had an impact on me. A pendant I bought when I retired was the Emile Zola quote —**I am here to live out loud.** I have not been doing that.