Magical Memoir Moments
Learning from a Baby: A Memoir Writer’s Teacher
I was a baby once. Now I’m a grandma learning to write about childhood while holding my grandson.I remember Wordsworth’s “Ode on Intimations of Mortality” (1803) Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting; The Soul that rises with us, our life’s Star, Hath had elsewhere its setting And cometh from afar; Not in…
Memoir: Is it Inevitably About Our Parents?
Noble laureate Doris Lessing wrote her last book, Alfred and Emily, reviewed in The New York Times here, at age 88. She’s now 91 years old. Apparently she’s been working out the meaning of her parents’ tragic lives all her life. Her father lost a leg in the trenches during World War I. Her mother…
My First Podcast: On Dancing with Change, Grandmothering, and Leadership!
Brian Paff, a very creative young leader-in-the-making at Laurelville Mennonite Church Center, interviewed me for his podcast series at the Laurelville website. Brian wrote a press release about the series of three speeches I gave at Laurelville April 30-May 1. The theme was dancing with change, and Stuart and I demonstrated the “frame” in ballroom…
Dancing with Change, Part Three: Gramps and Granny Nanny Leave for the Big Apple
In a few days, Stuart and I will move a second time in less than seven months! Our journey has taken us from the Midwest to the South to the Northeast. By the end of this week, we will be living in a Brooklyn highrise. And by August 1, we will be sharing a new…
Reader's Digest–A Fond Memory–And Now, a Memoir Source
Since television was not allowed in my Mennonite home when I was growing up, magazines, newspapers, and radio were an important link to the outside world. The magazines I read from cover to cover included The Saturday Evening Post, Boy’s Life, and Life. But these were special treats not always available. Usually, they followed some…
An Interview on Learning To Write by Learning to Read
This week one of my own favorite bloggers, prize-winning Canadian novelist Dora Dueck, interviewed me on her blog about an issue central to my reason for starting this blog: to learn to write by reading better writers than myself. You will want to click the link above and explore her thoughtful blogs, but in the meantime,…
Jack Kerouac–Gives a Great Rationale for 100Memoirs!
Today my friend Ruth Davis, an expert on all things related to Mac computers, shared a link to a Donna Baier Stein’s website called “Words, Spirit & You.” I loved it and actually “liked” the page after just one experience with it. Here’s today’s picture and the quote that goes with it. “I have been writing my…
My Mother's Magic Rainbow Story: A Lifelong Influence
I spent last weekend with my 84-year-old mother, who made her first trip from Pennsylvania to Virginia in many years, thanks to her escorts–my sister Doris, her husband Dave, and their standard poodle Rodney. We celebrated Mother’s Day live and in person, albeit a week late. Yesterday I posted two wonderful Mother’s Day tributes found on other…
Audio Books v. Kindle v. Old Fashioned Book–Which is Better?
One of the best rewards of blogging is discovering a new or old friend in the comments section. Fun! Since I spent 28 years interacting with undergraduates at Goshen College, I love encountering them and hearing about their lives. Several of them commented on the review of Mennonite in a Little Black Dress I wrote back…
Doris Kearns Goodwin on Work, Love, Play, and a Bit of Memoir
Historian Doris Kearns Goodwin combines her knowledge of American presidents with Eric Erickson’s observation that we need to balance three needs–love, work, and play–in order to be fulfilled people. She describes Lincoln’s love of the theater and storytelling and contrasts his ability to play with Lyndon Johnson’s fixation on work. She herself has mastered the…