I was tagged by Nina, at Lazy Geisha, to pen a six word memoir. I don't usually participate in these types of things. Then again, I'm rarely tagged. Which is ironic because in high school I was voted most likely to be tagged.
Because the invitation comes from such a lovely Lady, I will participate.
The rules of the six word memoir tag are as follows:
Write your own six word memoir
Post it on your blog and include a visual illustration if you’d like
Link to the person that tagged you in your post
Tag five more blogs with links
And don’t forget to leave a comment on the tagged blogs with an invitation to play.
I appreciated Nina's memoir:
A little girl and her crayons.
Rather than stringing together six adjectives, Nina sketched a wonderful image using less than twenty-five letters. Ruthless economy, indeed. One sees a young girl, perhaps in front of the television, on her stomach, legs crossed, coloring away, pleasantly adrift in her own world as she contemplates the perfect color choice for her work.
Many people use the terms autobiography and memoir interchangeably. I bring a different set of expectations to an autobiography than I do to a memoir. An autobiography is expected to contain a good deal of verifiable fact, much like a biography. Most contain citations, pointing us to source material. If Henry Kissenger says that he met with Nixon the night before Nixon resigned, we rely upon that fact. Nixon's interpretation of that meeting may differ from Kissenger's but I take for granted that the meeting occurred the night before Nixon resigned.
Memoirs are more forgiving and bring a different set of expectations. Memoir - ultimately from the Latin by way of French, memoria or memory. Memoirs do not typically contain citations. We know that we are mining the depths of recollection and those are often distorted, like reviewing your life through a window coated with a thin pane of ice. Absolute certainty is not required, expected or necessary. If the writer recalls meeting someone on a humid, summer day, in Central Park, it is the reflection of the encounter that matters, not that it occurred at a given time or place. It's more about personal mythology.
As for me, I've always seen myself as 'the girl next door', give or take a few exceptions. Friendly without, hopefully, being cloying; more comfortable in jeans and a sweater than a strapless gown; a love of shopping and shoes but able to enjoy the Superbowl or World Series.
In many ways, I still fell about 18 or 20 years old. The insecure, naive, trusting girl still roams within, like a spirit consigned to the world. On the other hand, I like to think I've also looted the good things from youth, hoarding them for a time when I cannot conjure that young woman. A wide-eyed, sense of wonder at all life delivers. To quote a favorite film, I have maintained the capacity to 'dream large,' even when I have to live life on a scale smaller than some of those dreams.
My six word memoir:
'Dream collector, hanging from a star'
No tagging, but I'd love to see everyone's memoir. Consider yourself tagged.
5 comments:
Piper,
What a lovely memoir - and quite fitting actually I think too. It's interesting - I was having a conversation with saratoga over the weekend about this, and we both felt that this memoir-tag was one of the more interesting either of us had ever done because in many ways - as you eluded to in your post here - it demands a fair degree of introspection and reflection.
I think those of us who were tagged and then truly gave this some thought, come away from the exercise with a good feeling about the words we've chosen as our memoir; that if we could distill our lives into six words, these would be the ones we'd want others to remember us by - that the sum of our life was accurately captured with a simple, yet powerful, six word sentence - the imagery of words here is what's powerful about the exercise.
I know this is how I felt about my own six word memoir...
I think yours meets that same spirit of which we spoke.
Thank you so much for sharing in this with me.
nina
Piper,
I can see I have not spent enough time reading your posts. They are elegant and the naughty ones, erotic. I'm finding that my own posting needs more thought and less prurience. Less rushing and more thought of the rush. Anyway, nice post(s).
As for the six word memoir, I'm thinking that I must say something that puts VSK at the center of things. I've thought pretty long and hard about the choices I've made as a man. Essentially I've put her dreams first, not as some sort of martyrdom but rather because it has always been logical to do so. If there is any wisdom between my ears it might very well come from my ability to see that when it comes to emotional intelligence, she has a touch of genius. As a spoiled child, I lost the hunger that comes from lack of, which drives so many to compete to the top of their imagined holy mountain. And which if followed for me leads into not such fertile fields as I now frequent. So put that into six words?
Loved she whose love was undeniable.
I guess I could make it present tense, but I'm a historian.
"Learning and evolving every single day"
I've enjoyed your blog for quite some time now. It's too bad that that gentlemen (a term I use loosely) couldn't see what a good thing he'd have had if only he'd allowed it to unfold of its own accord. It's his loss ... surely not yours.
I too was tagged by the chaming and talented Nina, and decided to play along. My 6 word memoir was:
All who wander are not lost.
In one way or another, I've been wandering all my life. I see no reason to stop now.
Lola
http://lolaology.blogspot.com
"I too was tagged by the chaming and talented Nina, and decided to play along"
Always the hostess...
Glasses of Pomerol for all the girls who played along!
Mwah!
nina
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