That Place You Love: Real People. Real Stories.
Round-Up on Memory; Next-Up Waste; Hello new Contributors & Subscribers!
Memory is a many splendored thing.
I’m particular about getting facts straight in the memories that have built my life story. It started with unraveling my parents’ separation.
With two authorities on the opposite ends of a narrative - he said/she said - and me in the middle, I began to wonder about details, dates, and places. I found my parents were pretty fluid in their versions of things.
When I’d ask my dad a question about something that happened in our past, he’d preface his answer with, “Because your mother…”
I’d say, “Dad, can you answer with ‘Because I…?’”
Forgiveness goes a long way in relationships we want to maintain,
As does accountability.
As soon as he changed the pronoun from third to first person, his memory came into sharp focus. His actions and choices were his to share, and I learned so much more about our lives together.
6 Contributors shared thoughts & stories on MEMORY this week.
Scroll down for the Round-Up and new posts in CONFIDENCE & PERFECTION!
If you’re reading this for the first time…
And want to know more about the ZINE’s mission, go to ABOUT or FORUM on the Substack platform or read the introductory post I WAS AN EASY LIAR.
5 Contributors + 1 New Contributor took part in week 11 of TPYL!
Our theme was MEMORY through the lens of truth. I wrote about the discovery of a fifty-year old journal that chronicled my life in the womb up to walking and proves my parents were excited to have me.
Spoiler alert: the Lions were never in the Super Bowl.
(in order of appearance)
Carole D questioned the reliability of memory by revisiting a childhood bedroom with pink wallpaper that had yet to be built when the memorable event occurred.
Intact Animal used the power of search engines to revisit the scene and set list of his first concert, one that forever changed his relationship to music.
Amelia revisited the scenes of three different weddings knowing that certain details and the exact date and year are less meaningful than the memory itself.
New Contributor Kiah S was inspired by a family legend of bravery until she confronted the dare herself and knew it could never have happened, her hunch backed by History Channel credentials.
Lisa H considered surrendering into the fullness of an experience, whether it be painful or positive, to let new memories become their own healing entity.
Melissa S wondered if amnesia in childhood affected the reliability of her memory and how we have tools to preserve memories we don’t want to fade.
Contributor Autumn went back to CONFIDENCE to write about confidence being earned through mistakes and missteps even if hubris is sometimes the driving force.
Contributor Autumn also revisited PERFECTION to question the power of self-critical thinking and how image and health cannot be separated without cosmic payback.
READ & HEART these writers & SHARE your own story in the comments.
Next Up: Waste
On Monday, I’ll write about WASTE through the lens of truth and see what I come up with as a prompt. My mind wanders from chemical waste to wasted time to waste of talent to wasted opportunity to totally wasted, dude to waste not want not to haste makes waste to food waste, medical waste, toxic waste…
Where does WASTE take you?
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More to come on Monday….
Have a great weekend.
Sincerely, for real.