Six word memoirs

Recently there has been a lot of Media buzz” around a new book called “Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous & Obscure”. It is a collection, by Smith Magazine, of almost 1,000 six-word memoirs, including additions from many celebrities including Stephen Colbert, and Jane Goodall - it also includes six word memoirs from ordinary every day people. Newspapers have picked up the idea and there have been articles in both the Seattle Times/PI and Bellingham Herald Sunday papers. When I read the original small article in the Herald, I had no idea that this project was so large, but after reading the Times/PI article, I looked the book up on the internet and found out more info about the book and "The Legend".

The Legend - “Legend has it that author Ernest Hemingway was once challenged to write a story in only six words. His response? “For sale: baby shoes, never worn.”

Last year, SMITH Magazine promoted the idea by asking their readers for their own six-word memoirs. Little did they realize what they were starting - People sent in short life stories in droves, from the bittersweet (“Cursed with cancer, blessed with friends”) and poignant (“I still make coffee for two”) to the inspirational (“Business school? Bah! Pop music? Hurrah”)” * from Smith Magazine’s web site.

So I decided to try my own hand at writing one of these short, sweet stories - I came up with:

“Life with animals is never boring” and

“The Shepherd - my partner in music.” or how about

“Sister, friend, wife, bookkeeper, cat mom” - that one didn’t inspire me very much, but it did describe my life to a “T” - I think the best that I came up with was this one, though -

“Farm girl, city girl, farm girl”

I also tried it out in our church newsletter (I am the Editor) - our members came up with some good ones:

"Young at heart, old everywhere else" G.M.
"Climbed slippery slopes, some sliding back" T.H.
"Life can be empty - or full" S.L.
"Pink and sparkly, flower fairies dancing" from four year old E.W.
and finally - "This I know – alive is best." F.T.

What do you think - share your life's story with us - leave your six word memoir in the comments - or better yet - put it on your blog and see what your friends come up with.



And now for something completely different....



















What do you think? Today was our Spindrifters meeting. I actually haven't been spinning at all for the last month or so - but I had prepped some fiber that Yvonne gave to us from the spinning class I took from her in March. So I took it with me and spun it up today. I can't remember what it was for sure, maybe Coreydale? But it spun up like a dream - but I think that the preparation sure made all the difference - I have some grey shetland left over from my sister's scarf that I think I will ply it with - I want to make a carry bag from all the stuff I've been practicing on.

Then I'll get down to business on Susie's fleece.