Life Story Links: December 4, 2019
“The turning leaves of fall remind us how much beauty wouldn’t exist if it weren’t for the life and death of each season that came before. This lesson in wholeness entreats us to pursue the whole picture of who we were made to be, to live in the abundance of our own story, and to know that each piece—the broken, the sad, the hard, just as much as the fulfilled, the good, the happy—plays into reaping the harvest of who we are.”
—Joanna Gaines
First Person Voice
TINY LOVE STORIES
In “From Romantic Tragedy to Romantic Comedy” readers share personal anecdotes of love in no more than 100 words—proof than emotion and story can indeed be conveyed meaningfully and succinctly.
WRITING OTHERS INTO BEING
Sema Kaygusuz’s grandmother “constantly talked about her impoverished childhood, about the older sister she lost at a young age, about the many djinns, spirits and beings from the other world whom she saw in her dreams,” yet she was silent about the trauma she witnessed in Turkey in 1938. Why?
MAKING HISTORY
“Despite their messiness, obscurity and fictions, individual lives are the stitches of the past.” At what point does memoir become biography and biography become history?
Bits & Pieces
WRAPPED IN MEMORIES
Last week I shared five fabulous gift ideas for any sentimental adults in your life, and I do believe each one is more unexpected than the next! Will you be putting any on your own wish list...?
THE ANONYMOUS PROJECT
“Storytelling can be yet another act of restoration.” On imagining the stories behind old photographs and slides gathered into a collection, sans context or captions.
...and a Few More Links
Inspired by Monticello’s Getting Word project, students launch UVA oral history project.
How people in the UK are preserving history for future generations with life stories
The Survivors: A Story of War, Inheritance, and Healing—a story where no one is exactly who they seem.
Twitter's plans to start deleting inactive accounts prompts digital legacy concerns.
Short Takes
