Five years ago some of you were part of the first class of Prime Timers who began turning their memories into memoirs. Those who have joined the group since have heard and read some of those stories and want to write their own stories. Soooo . . . . . we will work together again this year on turning some more memories into memoirs during our morning intellectual stimulation which we call Rogain for the brain.
Sometimes we dismiss recording our stories for a multitude of reasons. Here are some reasons to begin now
“Remember the days of old, consider the years long past; ask your father, and he will inform you; your elders and they will tell you.” (Deuteronomy 32:7).
• In a church I worked at years ago, we had an annual intergenerational event called “Making Memories.” It was held just prior to advent. Young and old gathered for a potluck meal together and to share stories, participate in a play, and make an advent wreath or other symbol of the Christmas season to take home.
• During the summer of 1991, my two oldest grandsons then 9 and 11 years old came from Arizona to spend the summer with me in Pittsburgh. Highlights for them of that time, were the times they spent looking at scrapbooks, photo albums and going through boxes of old scrapbook material (which never found it’s way to a book) saved from their mother’s school years. A couple of evenings were spent looking at old slides taken of their mother and her siblings. They discovered to their delight a part of history theretofore unknown to them.
One of the grandsons came across material in one of the albums noting that he was a descendant of Ethan Allen, leader of the “Green Mt. Boys” during the revolutionary war and that another of his ancestors was a part of “Sherman’s March to the Sea.” It proved to have added value for him by being the topic and source of information for a project in his history class.
Remembering our stories is a legacy we leave
• Toward the end of the summer of my first year at Community Presbyterian Church, Dr. Stephen Sapp, head of the Department of Religious Studies and the Center on Aging at the University of Miami, preached at our church. I had asked him in a conversation prior to his coming if he would have a few minutes to talk with me about a program, in the planning stage, for older adults. He had so many suggestions and insights, but one thing he said I have never forgotten. He had suggested as one of the activities of the program, having participants write their life stories. He said it was so very important, for the senior adults who had wisdom and information that no one else was savvy to regarding their family, to have a written record of it. He used the analogy of a part of a history shelf in a library being wiped clean when the person dies if there has been no “book” written of the person’s life.
• During the summer of 1997 I attended a conference on Older Adult Ministry in North Carolina. There I met Richard Morgan, Presbyterian minister, conference leader, author, and friend of Dr. Sapp. He was the keynote speaker of the conference and teacher of one of the classes I took. He added another reason, another dimension, to and for writing one’s life story. He quoted Henri Nouwen from his book Life of the Beloved.
"Your life and my life are, each of them, one-of-a-kind, No one has ever lived your life or my life before, and no one will live them again. Our lives are unique stones in the mosaic of human existence - priceless and irreplaceable."
I purchased one of Morgan’s books Remembering Your Story: A guide to Spiritual Autobiography. He says our stories contain our very souls.
Remembering Our Stories Is a Legacy We Leave.