Don't be a Writer!

In some recent reading, I learned an important lesson for anyone trying to record their personal or family history….Don’t try to be a writer! That may be important if you don’t think of yourself as a writer. You are so convinced you can’t do it you over think it. You try too hard or worse you don’t do it at all. You don’t have to be a writer to record your family history. Your family is not going to read your family history to see how good a writer you are. They want to hear from you…your memories, your thoughts, what you know about their family. If you write to them to just tell them the family stories as you would sitting around the kitchen table, they will understand what you are writing about far quicker than a perfectly composed essay could relay. Don't worry about the exact structure of your sentences or paragraphs, just roll with your story. You can always go back to rework some explanations or adjust your grammar or spelling or you can find someone like me to help you rework it. The important thing is writing it down. I had a friend who definitely was not a writer…barely a good conversationalist. But he took my advice; he decided to “write it down.” He was well into his 70s and retired. He enjoyed working with the local historical society, but he was a worker. He wanted nothing to do with sitting around reminiscing or talking about what the society could do. He wanted to do it. He carried books, trophies and memorabilia from the town’s history. He painted the rooms donated to house the artifacts. He walked the cemetery to record all the graves. When I started writing a column “Write It Down” in our society’s quarterly newsletter, he listened. He took his pencil and a pad of paper to do just that…get his history and his memories recorded. He asked me to type it for him, even tho’ his wife was a perfectly good typist. I kept saying I would…and of course, wouldn’t you know, I didn’t “get around to it.” He fell at home after an illness, and subsequently and quite unexpectedly…died. I’ve never seen his written history, but based on the memories he shared for our newsletter, I’m sure it was a minimalist version of what may have been an interesting life. He was a laborer all his life, working in the local industry until his retirement. He walked to the post office every day. He and his wife followed the country music and bluegrass circuit with local, rural personalities. A simple life, but one that deserves to be remembered for what he felt was an accomplished life. I haven’t asked his wife, but I hope she found his recorded history and finally typed it for his family as his legacy. We all deserve to leave a legacy, our memories of a life well-lived or what we want people to remember about us. Or perhaps you just want someone to know the values you cherished in life to impact the lives of those who come after you. Write it down and don’t worry about how it reads…it’s just you telling your story.