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September
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Baseball Season and Jeter Era End
September 28, 2014
An illustrious twenty year baseball career came to an end today, the
last day of the long 162 game Major League baseball season. Derek
Jeter, playing in his final game against his team's arch-rival, hit a
single to drive in a run and then came out of the game to a large
ovation from the fans. In many ways it is ironic that Derek Jeter, number 2, of the New York Yankees,
finished his career with a game in Boston. There are few sports
rivalries more intense than the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees.
Over the years they've always provided high drama. And Derek Jeter has
a highlight reel full of dramatic moments against the Red Sox. His body
of work is, of course, more impressive as you take in his great career.
Derek Jeter is a rare breed in baseball these days. Not only did he
play his entire career with one team, the storied New York Yankees, he
also played with incredible passion and integrity. He tops many Yankee
all time records and is 6th on the all time hits list for baseball (a
total of 3,465). He also has more hits than any shortstop in history.
Just as impressive is his legendary character. He's managed to guard
his private life, no easy feat in the glare of the New York media
spotlight. Additionally, he's never been involved in a scandal. Heck,
he wasn't even ever ejected by an umpire from a game. Usually if he
disagreed with a called strike he would keep his head bowed down and
ask his question about location politely. Supposedly he kept his head
down so as not to embarass the umpire.
Derek Jeter is a sure bet for the Hall of Fame. He won lots of
championships, played the game with excellence and his last home game
at Yankee Stadium this past Thursday couldn't have been scripted better
when he hit the game winning single in a walk-off fashion (meaning the
game ended with the winning run in the bottom of the inninng). Derek
Jeter, a class act through and through.
Now my all time favorite team is the Boston Red Sox. What a difference
a year makes! Last year Boston won it all and yet this season the
defending World Champions suffered through a losing season and finished
last in their division. That's baseball, and that's life, lots of ups
and downs.
The regular season ended today and the post-season is about to start
and there are great stories for the teams that will continue in the
playoffs. For one, the Kansas City Royals have made the playoffs for
the first time in 29 years. The last time they played October baseball,
in 1985, they went all the way and won the World Series. They join some
other teams with great stories and if you are a baseball fan like me
you know this is a fun time of year. There are even some interesting
regional possibilities for the World Series. The Washington Nationals
could end up playing the Baltimore Orioles. Or perhaps we could see the
Los Angeles Dodger and Angels in the Falll Classic. Both the San
Francisco Giants and the Oakland A's are wild card teams in their
respective leagues; maybe there will be a Bay area Series. Lots of
possibilities and lots of stories yet to unfold.
I love baseball and how in many ways it parallels life. Today was a fun day - the end of the baseball season and a fitting send off for Derek Jeter, one of the all time greats.
Personal Historian Libby Atwater Has Helped Others, Now Finally Tells Her Own Story
September 23, 2014
Yes, of course, people should tell their stories! This is the rallying
cry from just about all personal historians. We encourage, motivate and
inspire others to tell their life stories. We work hard to gather
material, interview, organize and help put the finished product
together for those willing to hire us. And yet, many of us fail to do
the same thing for ourselves. Hmmm, practice what you preach, anyone?
Nice to see that Libby Atwater (www.chooseyourwords.net), a Personal Historian and longtime member of the Association of Personal Historians, has finally finished and published her memoir, What Lies Within.
And it turns out that after ten years getting it done she realized
there is more to tell and she is hard at work on a sequel. She was
recently interviewed on the Bill Frank radio show and you can listen to
her fascinating tale of her memoir journey, along with some good
tidbits about personal history work. She discovered the importance of
perseverance in finally writing and publishing her story. Maybe it will
help you get started or continue on your own story.
Incidentally, if you think working as a personal historian is something
you want to do I encourage you to explore it. It is a passion for
peoples' stories that drives me, along with desire to write and share
values, stories and history with other people. I have found it to be
rewarding and influential in my own development. The APH
is currently conducting a membership drive and I highly recommend it as
an organization to join if you are doing this kind of work. If you do
join, please mention my name. I would love to make contact with you and
share some of the wisdom that has been so generously been passed on to
me.
The Life Story Library Foundation Memoir Writing Seminar
September 17, 2014
There are some pretty neat things happening in Utah involving personal history work. There are several active members of the Association of Personal Historians and the creation of the Life Story Library Foundation (led by founder and president Paulette Stevens) is resulting in some good work.
I met Paulette and some other Utah PH'ers (Personal Historians) a
couple of years ago when I attended a regional conference in Salt Lake
City. Stevens is vivacious and passionate about preserving life
stories. I consider her a kindred spirit. One of the upcoming events
you might want to take part in is a Memoir Writing Seminar, October
10-12. The featured presenter is Nan Phifer. She is a noted workshop
leader on memoir writing and wrote an excellent memoir guide that I've
been reading, Memoirs of the Soul.
The three day workshop is titled "Writing Meaningful Memoirs" and
Phifer agreed to lead it because of her interest in spreading the
message of the importance of memoir writing. Early registration
discount apply before September 22. You can get more information from this article featured on the Park Record and also at the Life Story Library Foundation site.
Going the Distance
September 16, 2014
Going the distance, be that a long distance run or accomplishing
any goal in life, is important to me. I know from my own experience
that the times I've wanted to quit or give up, yet persevered, have
been some of the best learning situations.
Sunday I ran another half marathon. That's 13.1 miles. This is a race I've done twice before, the New Mexico Chips & Salsa Half Marathon.
It's a scenic and flat course that winds through the North Valley
of Albuquerque. My time was not my best, or worst, clocking in at 2
hours 19 minutes. But that's about right for how I run. I am now 58
years old and 10 to 10:30 minute miles is just about right. This year
in training I tweeked a back leg muscle on a 12 mile run in early
August, and then I had a cold all last week, so my usual training miles
were cut back some. Frankly, I was a bit surprised how good I felt
through the race. Sure, I was tired and worn out at the end, but it was
such a beautiful morning and I had mentally prepared myself well the
night before and early that morning. So the run was a good experience.
Running and going the distance is part of a theme for a memoir I am
working on. I am focusing on the ten year period of 2003 to 2013.
During this decade there were several significant life experiences. I
started my long distance running in 2006 at the age of 50. My kids grew
into adults during this ten year span. Both my parents passed away. Two
grandchildren have been born.
My career went through changes, including finally abandoning radio
broadcasting for a new career in teaching. My faith has deepened. My
writing has matured.
The themes that will run (yes, run)
through this memoir are baseball (Boston Red Sox), family, work, faith,
music and running. Somehow each of these areas are touchstones
for a significant ten year stretch of my life.
The tough challenge for my memoir goal is to get it written, edited,
revised and published. I will find a service to print and bind it and
my intention is to share the book with others, perhaps even selling a
few copies. But the real goal is to finally have a finished memoir that
reflects on a period in my life. It starts by doing a bit of writing
nearly every day. It ends by crossing the finish line of a completed
narrative and thumbing through pages that I will help me better
understand those ten important years of my life.
Dog Days of 9/11
September 11, 2014
Every year on the anniversary of 9/11 I am in a reflective mood. Of
course, I am not alone, as all of us who remember the horror of that
day of terrorist attacks can't help but recall where we were when we
saw or heard the events that unfolded on that morning. The hijacked
airliners that were flown int the World Trade Center Towers in New York
City, the Pentagon in Washington D.C and Flight 93 that crashed in
Pennsylvania will forever be etched into the history of the United
States.
What always moves me each anniversary is learning more of the heroic tales of those who helped amid the tragedy. Today on the Today Show
(NBC) I learned about a service dog that is believed to be the last
surviving search dog who worked at Ground Zero in New York City after
the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Bretagne (pronounced "Brittany") is now a
15-year-old golden retriever. She and her handler, Denise Corliss have
a fascinating and heartfelt story of their work both at the site of the
attacks and at other disasters. And they are still helping today by
visiting schools and encouraging elementary kids who struggle with
reading. Clearly, they both have huge hearts.
The compassion of Bretagne is amazing. During those "dog days" of 12
hour shifts digging through the rubble she not only worked hard, she
comforted many of the other workers who'd grown numb from the grisly
labor. She sensed when someone needed some comforting. See the story of
this heroic dog here.
Laughing Matters
September 9, 2014
After recently writing about how humor
helps I have continued to think about how important having a sense
of humor can be, both in life and in our life stories. The recent death
of yet another celebrity, Joan Rivers, certainly keeps this top of
mind. Joan was fearless when it came to comedy; no subject was off
limits. Her brash approach could offend, but she also found truth
in the "brass tacks".
A post on the blog of the Association
of Personal Historians speaks of the importance of humor in
personal histories. In What's So Funny
Ruby Peru expresses her views of how humor is important in our stories,
but warns against approaching it as "the funny parts". Rather, she
encourages storytellers to recognize the part humor plays in our lives.
She will expand on this topic at the upcoming APH Conference (Believe It...Achieve It! in St. Louis). Her
workshop "Laugh and the World Laughs With You: Humor in Personal
Histories", is to be presented October 23.
In her blog post she links to an interesting article by Joan Bauer from
The Alan Review. Humor, Seriously
quotes writer William Zinsser - "What I want to do is make people
laugh, so they'll see things clearly." That was clearly accomplished by
both Joan Rivers and Robin Williams, two comedy legends who've recently
passed away.
Humor Helps
September 3, 2014
Here's an excerpt from the new YLYS Newsletter that was sent out a
couple of days ago.
When writing about your life, or that of another, it is
important to get to the heart of the story. There are many important
things we want to include, especially messages for our loved ones,
passing on our values, and making a statement about what’s been
important to us.
That being said, some of this life story stuff can get heavy. Many of
the inquiries I receive from people wanting help preserving their
personal history include mention of painful experiences. Perhaps it is
abuse of some kind, or they’ve had great loss. Suffering is part
of our human experience. I’ve found that it can lead to lots of
growth.
At the same time, we need to be able to laugh, smile, chuckle, guffaw
and lighten up. Humor in a story can help in a number of ways. For one
thing, it can create common ground. We’ve all had suffering. But
don't
we all enjoy a good joke or a funny antidote?
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