Life Story Links: December 8, 2020
“There is not one big cosmic meaning for all, there is only the meaning we each give to our life, an individual meaning, an individual plot, like an individual novel, a book for each person.”
—Anaïs Nin
Bubble gum kids series of photographs by Cornell Capa for LIFE magazine, January 1947.
The Stories of Our Lives
LETTERS TO THE KIDS
"Somehow we had never really found time to tell stories. Everybody was just busy doing stuff, living our lives." After Bob Brody, a writer in NY, came to this realization, he spent a year writing letters to his grown children “as an act of love and memory…but also as a legacy—a repository of knowledge about the relatives who came before them.”
JUST SAY YES
What are the chances that we’ll all hear—and preserve—our parents’ stories if we don’t ask for them? Yeah, not great. Here are three easy ways to get the family storytelling ball rolling.
“NARRATIVE THERAPY”
Longtime South Carolina–based personal historian Mary Johnston shares how she helps Lowcountry writers transform memories into memoirs during the pandemic.
“TRUTHS THAT MATTER”
“I am haunted by what I don’t know about my father, and long to know, no matter how many pages of declassified documents pertaining to his old night fighter squadron that I’ve been able to obtain,” Paul Hendrickson writes in this meandering but worthwhile piece that’s, ultimately, about two writers and their complicated relationships with their fathers’ pasts.
Write On!
FIND SERENITY THROUGH WRITING
For the past several years Massachusetts–based personal historian Nancy West has led writing groups at which she promotes the value of establishing a daily writing practice. During the pandemic, she compiled her favorite "three-minute journaling" prompts into a book.
DEMENTIA LETTERS PROJECT
Kathryne Fassbender, CDCS, founder of Dementia Letters Project, invites you to write a letter—addressed to “yourself, your family, dementia, to a loved one with dementia, the community, God, anyone, everyone”—sharing your dementia-related story.
The Power of Our Voices
LETTERS TO HER SON
The New York Times calls Homeira Qaderi’s memoir, Dancing in the Mosque, “a stunning reminder that stories and words are what sustain us, even—and perhaps especially—under the most frightening circumstances.”
WOMEN’S VOICES
“This documentary [The Girl Inside] will make you think about the power of your own voice, the healing gift of story-telling, and what message you want your life to speak into the world.”
Miscellany: Food, Photos & Grief
FOLLOWING THE BREADCRUMB TRAIL
“Each bowl of okra soup or snippet of kitchen-table conversation is an ark from the past…” How to apply insights from chefs and culinary historians to cook family recipes that hold special meaning to you, even if the elders who originally made them are gone.
WHEN WE WERE YOUNG
A baby's first sip of stout, picnics beside cars, and braving cold seas: Nostalgic photos showing family life in Britain between the ’40s and ’70s collected in new book.
AMIDST HER GRIEF
“There was no gathering or reception after, no hugs and fellowship with our family and friends, no stories exchanged in anyone’s yard,” memoirist Nicole Chung writes in this poignant piece about the signposts of mourning and honoring our grief.
...and a Few More Links
Older adults remember past events with remarkable accuracy, new study finds.
Forever ambassador Ellen Thompson-Jennings details layouts and resources for making your own family stories book.
One family’s Milanese Jewish recipes that survived generations of secrecy
Winter online writing classes from Creative Nonfiction (including historical narratives and the thirty-minute memoir)
Thoughts from writer Sarah Cannon on writing a hybrid memoir
Interesting thoughts on the idea that memory lies at the heart of various academic disciplines
Short Takes
