On October 15, a week from today, the highly acclaimed Alice Walker, author of The Colour Purple, will be the guest lecturer at the University of Georgia's event "A Conversation with Alice Walker." The FREE event that requires tickets, sold out in less than 1 hour. 

Watching a short interview with Alice Walker I'm fascinated by her calm. Here's a woman who by all rights could be a Hollywood star but is appears to not want any of it. She enjoys her peace and tranquil life and speaks only when it matters. There's a lot to be said for someone who doesn't feel the need to add to all the "noise" in the media, who speaks merely to share an insightful point of view. That's the sense I get from her. Watch the interview by clicking on the image below. (Side rant: my video embed feature hasn't been working for the past couple of days, AH-NNOYING! End of rant, lol.) 

Walker was also recently featured in a blog post on Brainpickings.org about the power of telling the truth, even when it's hard. She explains that speaking the truth is constructive whereas lying is destructive, and construction by nature, as a rule is harder. However it is also this quality that "gives more satisfaction to the person who can achieve it." 

What is it about the truth that people opt for lying instead? It's like Walker also says in the above referenced article, when you lie, you're constantly having to remember what you lied about. Sounds like more work to me. 

I think a lot of us are afraid, or uncomfortable with our own truth too, so we lie, or simply don't speak at all of our truth. It's easier to conform to what society deems right and acceptable, blend in, don't ruffle any feathers, and you should be able to live a relatively peaceful life. Whoopi however, as shared yesterday, stated that the valuable lesson she learned from her mom was that being yourself (owning your truth), is easy as long as you don't care about what people think of you. 

It's sad that we in today's day and age have the freedom to write and speak as we please, but go to the grave with our treasures, as Dr. Myles Munroe often said, all in the name of fear. Specially when there was a time that women of colour by law, couldn't share their gift. Walker talks more about just that in this other Brainpickings article. Having a creative spirit by nature, and being stifled because of the colour of your skin. Can you imagine a world without any Motown classics ever written? A world without Love & Basketball, without Oprah and Harpo Inc? I couldn't, cause these are all things I grew up with and hold dearly. 

If you would like help starting your own literary project, Masterclass now sells classes in writing (along with acting, singing, tennis, photography, and performing) from renowned individuals in the respective fields. Performing is for instance being taught by Usher, and singing by Christina Aguilera. Writing however, our focus for today, is taught by the best selling author James Patterson, who wrote "Cross", the novel turned motion picture "Alex Cross", starring Tyler Perry. Details on the course, price (only $90), including lesson plan and materials can be found by clicking on the image below.

Be blessed!