More Beautiful Unbroken, Part I

As I sit here and peck at my black keys, Mary Jane Nealon reads to me aloud from her Beautiful Unbroken. I've studied memoir writing and yet I just took a look on line for pointers. Here's some of what I learned. "As you write your memoir, remember to have compassion for yourself." The way to be compassionate is to see the good, the G-dliness, in every person - even yourself. If you paint yourself as all bad, no-one will want to come close enough to let you whisper in their ear. Also though, if you say you're a saint no-one will want anything to do with you - people like saints as long as they stay at a far distance. This is crucial when it comes to other characters in your life story. Most of us are not going to portray ourselves as all bad, castigating others is much more of a tricky temptation to navigate. This advice page suggests to ask yourself about someone that you feel did you wrong, "What pain did that person experience that made him or her behave that way?" Mary Jane masterfully finds sensible, even compelling reasons for why her mother was critical of her, why her father drank heavily until he was a sad shadow after her brother died, and why she and her sister behaved so differently (her sister was born first and took responsibility and compliance, so Mare took what was left - adventurous running). I could write more about this book and the thoughts it's put in my head about memoir writing. Perchance I will.