Where is the line between life and art? How much of our personal lives should we share in writing?

How often is vulnerability a virtue? And is social media ever a good place to share the details of trauma?

The more-than-advice-column Emily Writes Back takes on these questions in a recent response I really like this week. In the post, Emily writes back to a reader with advice about posting on social media about an abusive relationship. In the process, she gives a definition of “artist” that I’m going to take with me into the world:

“I’m an artist,” she writes, “as in I feel strongly compelled to make things (essays and stories and drawings and poems) that are a representation of life, of myself and others and how I see the world and my relationship to God, to my own experiences, to the natural world. (Now I’m getting worked up.) What I mean is I’m not accidentally showing my ass. It’s on purpose! It’s art, I tell you, art!”

Emily, who’s a friend of mine, gets it out there not just in her entertaining and deep advice column but also in her cartoons and sketch art.

I personally tend toward sharing not enough rather than too much. Emily’s article reminds me to be brave about voicing my experiences and reactions.