Photograph by ~priyak~
I’ve been tagged by my good friend, Baekho to write a six-word memoir. This concept apparently came about due to Hemingway who summarized his own life in the following six words:
For Sale: Baby Shoes, never worn.
Personally, I’m not all too familiar with Hemingway and was at first confounded by his choice of words. Actually, truth by told I was confounded by this whole idea of summarizing one’s life in so short a manner. How could it be done? But as I see (since others have done so) and soon found out for myself this is not an impossible task. It is, however, quite difficult. One wants to be true to one’s life, to one’s self, however this may be very revealing – intimate even. I always knew that words carried great powers of all sorts still it was a pleasant surprise to realize that a simple set, a mere handful of words could represent one’s life so acutely.
So without further ado let me present the rules of the meme, which are:
1. Write your own six word memoir.
2. Post it on your blog and include a visual illustration if you’d like.
3. Link to the person who tagged you in your post and to this original post if possible so we can track it as it travels across the blogosphere.
4. Tag five more blogs with links.
5. And don’t forget to leave a comment on the tagged blogs with an invitation to play!
And my oh so short memoir:
Searching, seeking, progressing – wither to bloom.
For my own reasons I will not tag other members, however if anyone feels up to the task I invite anyone and everyone to participate and spread the word. Enjoy!
-Raatkiranii (K.F.S)
"The Oxford History of Islam" by John L. Esposito (Editor)
"O wave! Plunge headlong into the dark seas,
And change thyself with many a twist and turn;
Thou wast not born for tile solace of the shore;
Arise, untamed, and find a path for thyself."
- Allama Muhammad Iqbal
Lovely, writerly memoir, so glad you played. Your blog is wonderful, I enjoyed blurking
Bookbabie - Thank you for dropping by and leaving such a kind comment. I’m glad you enjoyed your visit. As to the meme it provided a wonderful challenge and I’m happy to have participated.
Yours is an amazing blog. And your 6-word meme is just, i don’t know, can’t find words to describe it…
And thanks for leaving the tag open. I’ll do my best to make the tag popular…
This is very fascinating, I too am not a ‘tag your it’ kinda gal
Yaake - Thank you. That’s high praise indeed. I hope you try the meme yourself. It was quite a fun challenge.
Patty - Thank you. The meme was definitely thought provoking so this post owes much to the original idea of the game.
I understand what you mean, sometimes the time is just not right and one doesn’t want to put on the spot. But do give it a shot! It’s interesting even if one does it just for one’s self.
Glad you responded as well, RKR—summarizing one’s life in a handful of words is definitely far from easy.
Baekho - I’m glad I did too. I was quite a fun little challenge.
I read the book Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous and Obscure in which famous and not-so-famous writers were asked to provide their life stories in six word sentences. They responded with funny, sad and often poignant quotes that are a short record or chronicle of their lives. Many of them are really inspiring. For more information about the book, some sample quotes and the chance to add your own six-word memoir, you can read the page I created at http://www.squidoo.com/yourlifesentenceinsixwords.
Personally, I like the last one which relates to my family. I have fourteen and sixteen year old sons for whom the quote is absolutely, positively true…they have their whole lives ahead of them. The quote is:
“Fourteen years old, story still untold.”
Please visit my page and leave your life sentence in six words!
Brenda