Writing
Are You Hiding in Your Closet?
May 16, 2014
So, imagine my surprise when I came across this TedX Talk by Ash Beckman, a lovely woman I met at the Breadloaf Writers’ Conference a few years back. At the time, she was working on composing this very story.
At the time, I didn’t understand her militancy, why she’d abandoned her birth name, Ashley, and why she dressed like a man. I thought she was just trying to be provocative.
In this talk, Ash talks about hiding from others who you truly are. Everyone, at some point in their life, has experienced hardship. The only way out, says Beckham, is to open the door and step out of your closet.
All our closet is, says Ash, is a hard conversation.
What, my Darling, are you hiding? What are you afraid to admit about yourself? How might admitting it all free you up?
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I highly recommend watching this.
I watched this because of the statement about hard conversations. I found the whole idea of everyone living in their own closet (where it is always dark) so insightful. Also, the thought that you need to throw your grenade or you’ll be the only one who gets killed. And I keep this take-away with me: There is no harder, only hard. It is like my mantra now. Having gone through a lot of “hard” the past few years, I know what that feels like but not having to justify whether my hard is harder than someone else’s make me feel that much more able to process my kind of hard. I am going to recommend this to others I know who have it hard.
Thank you so much for posting this!
You are welcome Miss J. I am quick to dismiss my troubles as being no big deal. But that’s unfair. It’s my way of detaching so I don’t have to feel. We all go through hard. That’s part of life. But it helps when we have compassion for ourselves.
I highly recommend watching this.
I watched this because of the statement about hard conversations. I found the whole idea of everyone living in their own closet (where it is always dark) so insightful. Also, the thought that you need to throw your grenade or you’ll be the only one who gets killed. And I keep this take-away with me: There is no harder, only hard. It is like my mantra now. Having gone through a lot of “hard” the past few years, I know what that feels like but not having to justify whether my hard is harder than someone else’s make me feel that much more able to process my kind of hard. I am going to recommend this to others I know who have it hard.
Thank you so much for posting this!
You are welcome Miss J. I am quick to dismiss my troubles as being no big deal. But that’s unfair. It’s my way of detaching so I don’t have to feel. We all go through hard. That’s part of life. But it helps when we have compassion for ourselves.