Importance of Life Writing – Alexander Solzhenitsyn

Posted on August 5, 2008 by moonbridgebooks

Alexander Solzhenitsyn died last Sunday night. I can’t think of anyone else whose memoirs and true-life-based writings helped change an empire. Solzhenitsyn’s novels were built on his experiences caught in the Soviet “meat grinder” of arrests for simple or made-up crimes resulting in years in the horrific slave labor camps under Stalin. The Oak and the Calf, his literary memoir, was the story of himself as a persecuted writer against the Soviet totalitarianism – futile as a calf butting against an oak tree and yet the tree fell. His Gulag Archipelago trilogy, a lengthy narrative of personal experiences, eyewitness testimony and research, was the final blow that destroyed any sympathy left for the Russian regime. His life is a complicated story of one man’s strong integrity that allowed him to remain his own man by standing up to both the USSR and to Western culture. Son Stephan, when asked if he had learned anything from his father, stated, “Yes, that truth isn’t always popular.”

Granted, most of us will never have the opportunity to change the world through our lifewriting, but we may in our own small way change someone’s world by sharing, teaching, and inspiring.

Linda Austin
“Cherry Blossoms in Twilight”
http://www.moonbridgebooks.com
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Grandparenting Time for Stories

Posted on July 31, 2008 by moonbridgebooks

One of the best parts of our recent vacation with my husband’s side of the family was the time the kids spent with their grandparents, whom they rarely see as they live a couple states away. Children grow up and get jobs far away from home so it can be difficult for grandparents and grandchildren to get to know each other. The times that are spent together therefore become more valuable.

The Life Writers’ Forum yahoo group I am a member of, moderated by Sharon Lippincott of The Heart and Craft of Lifestory Writing and Jerry Waxler of Memory Writers Network, has recently been sharing thoughts about that valuable time spent with grandkids. One way to bond with the kids is to tell them the stories of our youth as we go about the day. No special time or place or event required, as we do our daily chores we can talk about whatever old memories come up that relate to what we are doing or thinking. This does take some awareness as we are not so attuned to storytelling as people were in the past, but what fun it can be for everyone to share with a young audience the stories of “the old days.”

While our own kids may have been lucky enough to have heard our stories, they are probably not attuned to storytelling either, so it may be up to you to pass on the family history and the family stories to your children’s children. And while you’re at it, the grandkids would surely LOVE to hear about their parents when they were kids, especially those stories when their mom or dad was less than perfect!

Linda Austin
“Cherry Blossoms in Twilight”
http://www.moonbridgebooks.com
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Family Vacation Memories

Posted on July 24, 2008 by moonbridgebooks

We have returned… exhausted! Our Alaskan cruise was not so relaxing for me. With my husband’s family and our kids in tow and not much time to discover the historic ports due to ship schedule and excursions, I often felt rushed and we were definitely not happy with the trouble we had with our flights to and from Vancouver. However, we all still had a good time and enjoyed being together as we rarely get the chance to do.

The key to a happy group vacation is to not make a point of sticking together. Our girls went off with their grandma to a dog sled camp and had a grand time petting puppies, marveling at the excitement and strength of the small mixed-breed dogs, and being pulled on a land sled (and getting mud spattered!). I am not shy about going off by myself to do things no one else is interested in. Some of us enjoyed shopping, some played the casino. We shared our stories at gourmet dinners while being pampered by the most friendly, impeccably mannered, multinational waiters.

I carried along a pocket-sized notebook to capture any thoughts, but ended up using it mostly for jotting down notes from the interesting cruise lectures, one on the Alaska pipeline and one given by an Alaska Native on his culture. I did purposefully stop several times in front of spectacular scenery to contemplate the wonder of nature and gather thoughts of what I was feeling at the moment, but decided that the many photos we were taking, sad second-hand images that they are compared to real life, would be enough to bring back memories and thoughts at more relaxed times. Marlys Styne in SeniorWriting, her short and encouraging book for beginning lifewriters, suggests looking at photos to stimulate the memory, which is an excellent tip for opening up nests of stories and feelings.

MS Movie Maker, available on newer pc computers, will help me make a movie clip with photos, music, and some digital camera video to bring our cruise back to life to be enjoyed again. (MACs have iMovie.) I’ll also add photos to the album of the first Alaskan cruise my husband and I took seven years ago (without kids). While I don’t scrapbook, per se, I have taken to using scrapbooking techniques in my photo albums, which is a great compromise for those of us without the time to do real scrapbooking.

The only important photo I didn’t take is one of Canadian money. My youngest daughter thought that getting Canadian change in Vancouver airport was one of the highlights of our trip. Go figure.

Linda Austin
“Cherry Blossoms in Twilight”
http://www.moonbridgebooks.com
Posted in capturing memories, family vacation, photos | 4 Comments