My sister and I gave our parents an interesting gift for Mother’s and Father’s Day this year. A chance to write their memoirs!
Through an Instagram ad, I heard about a company that asks questions to your loved ones throughout the year and then prints a book with all their answers, pictures, etc. for a family keepsake.
Both of my parents have been talking about writing their childhood stories and family information so we didn’t give them the option to back out!!
I’m a big lover of stories and it really is true that fact is stranger than fiction. While I read my parents’ weekly excerpts, I’m consistently struck by the reality that they are writing about real people. Sometimes things that happened to them, sometimes stories of grandparents or other relatives. But it’s history, it’s reality.
We are so inundated with stories. Fiction, non-fiction, the news, TV shows, movies, books. I sometimes wonder if all these things have made us immune to the truth of what has happened. We hear of other people’s experiences and thoughts so much, sometimes I think we ignore the value of the stories closest to us. We fail to ask about the experiences of our own family because we’re too interested in the more exciting stories of the people down the street.
I believe sometimes the younger generations have a reputation for not listening to or caring about the history behind them {and for some, that’s unfortunately true}. But the twentieth century saw some incredible changes! In our grandparents and parents lifetimes, we had some of the largest leaps in terms of technology, inventions, how life was lived, etc. And those experiences of living without much technology and growing up without the world in your palm will never happen again.
I for one find history fascinating. The things I completely take for granted — air conditioning, easy transportation, indoor plumbing — are relatively new when you think about the history of the world. Yet it’s hard for me to imagine growing up without them.
It’s so important for us to learn and listen from other people who have been through different experiences than us. We understand and appreciate things when we see them from various perspectives. But we never know a perspective besides our own unless we ask someone for theirs and listen.
Once we stop assuming we know everything about someone, we might find out some incredible things. Like my mom grew up on a farm and had to help thin and pick the cotton. She walked the fields barefoot and climbed trees to pick cherries. My dad went to Detroit Tigers double headers with his family, competed in football competitions, and taste-tested his mom’s homemade sauerkraut.
All these things are simple, small details but sometimes those are things that get lost and are underappreciated and yet, they have a bearing on memories and lives and decisions made. God uses even the littlest circumstances and we need to appreciate that in our lives and in the lives of others.
So, my challenge is to take time to write about your memories and childhood. You might it’s uninteresting or will never be read, but it is valuable. And take time to ask questions of others and listen to their life stories. I can guarantee you will learn something!!
Photo by Roman Kraft on Unsplash