Magical Memoir Moments
Are You a Sprinter or a Marathoner? Is There a Third Way?
My daughter just ran ten miles for the first time with her friend Kristi. Having my propensity toward rosy cheeks, she got beet red: She did not, however, inherit the capacity for long-distance running from me or from her father. She earned every mile from her own effort. Having worked hard to run in two…
How to Get Ready to Die: Easter Lessons from My Mennonite Mother
“Just don’t say, ‘She fell into the arms of Jesus.’” We were talking about death and funerals, fun topics for a 65-year-old woman and her 87-year-old mother. When Mother described the clichés and embellished phrases of some obituaries, we both howled in recognition, eager to reduce the serious, universal, subject of death with just enough…
Mennonite Bonnet and Covering Stories: Part One
All this week I’ve had coverings on my mind. Yesterday, as I was doing research about plain dress among the Eastern Pennsylvania Mennonites, I was joined at the library computer table by a Muslim woman in full head veiling. Yes, it’s true. There are more Muslim head veilings at Eastern Mennonite University these days than…
What kind of Mennonite Mother Would Name Her Daughter for Shirley Temple?
You would think I would have prepared for February 10, 2014, the day Shirley Temple Black died. A few years ago I had wanted to interview her but learned that she was in ill health and not responding to requests. The news of her death broke while I was traveling back from Los Cabos, Mexico….
Miranda, Mary Ann, and FriendStory: Bittersweet Childhood Memoir
We met in Brooklyn. She had written two novels. I was writing my first memoir. She lived with her family close to Fort Greene, where we were living in a high rise apartment, taking care of our grandson in another high rise close by. Our meeting was mostly online. But we did have one lovely…
Staring Death in the Face: How I Became a Gutsy Mennonite Memoirist
Are Mennonites “gutsy”? How about memoirists? My guess is that you may have had more problem answering “yes” to the first question than to the second. So here’s a Mennonite confession. I’ve always admired gutsy-ness. If you read to the very end of this post, you’ll understand why. First, let me introduce you to a…
Three Reasons Why We Need Books and Authors
Imagine there’s a world without books. Without authors. Now that would be dystopia! No Hunger Games, no Suzanne Collins, no archery craze that follows. But also — much worse. No holy books, no Shakespeare, no novels, none of the eight million books currently available on Amazon. We depend on books, whether on paper or digital,…
Crossing Cultures Through Memoir: A Guest Blog Post
Do you remember Jimmy Carter’s mother Lillian? She did many remarkable things, but what I remember most is that she applied to the Peace Corps at age 68 and then nursed leprosy patients during a two-year term in India. Let me introduce you to another Peace Corps volunteer, also a Gestalt psychotherapist and sociologist, Janet…
Book Clubs: Strengthening the Invisible Connection Between Authors and Readers
The poet Muriel Rukeyser most famously proclaimed, “The universe is made of stories, not of atoms.” No better proof of that dictum can be found than the conversation that occurs all around the world when readers assemble around a dining room table or a fireplace. The current name for this practice is book club, but…
Reviewing 2013 and Setting Goals for 2014: Continuing the Search for Simplicity, Legacy
On January 1 of each year, I try to reflect on the good news of the past year, forgive the pain, and gaze upon the blank slate of the new with great anticipation. As I get older, I think of each new year as an amazing gift. A friend once wished me a happy birthday,…