Wednesday, February 20, 2008

6 word memoir meme.

Main Entry: meme
Pronunciation: \ˈmēm\
Function: noun
Etymology: alteration of mimeme, from mim- (as in mimesis) + -eme
Date: 1976
: an idea, behavior, style, or usage that spreads from person to person within a culture


i'd seen the word, wasn't sure what it meant. So i looked it up on good ol' Mirriam-Webster online. Now, this can only be a good word, as it began back when my hips were small and i was a lovely young bride.

This i bring up because i followed the blog-stream from Bookbabie's comment on my One good thing about the flu post. i waded from my post to her blog, and found this:

"As I read yet another book review of a memoir this weekend, my husband told me that I should write one. I said that my story would be much too short and rather boring so when I ran across the following book I decided it was just my speed. A six word memoir! Written by Larry Smith and Rachel Fershleiser, Not Quite What I was Expecting: Six Word Memoirs by Famous and Obscure is a compilation based on the story that Hemingway once bet ten dollars that he could sum up his life in six words. His words were- For Sale: baby shoes, never worn. There’s a video on Amazon with examples from the book, it sounds like a fun read! I’d like to start a six word memoir meme and here are the rules:

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 that 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!
It was actually a lot more difficult that I thought it would be, but here’s mine…


This too shall pass, I hope."

i continued down stream from there to visit the people she had tagged, so i could read their 6 word memoir memes. You can learn a lot about a person from 6 words!

-Lisamm at Books on the Brain came up with some rejects that made me laugh out loud, like:
Where the hell are my keys? and Stop crying and do your homework!

before she settled on this:
Searching for happiness in ordinary moments.

Sperlygirl (who looks like a very fun lady) came up with:
breathe in, breathe out... LET GO!

Fighting Windmills came up with this:
Just six? Can’t I have seven?

Wholeclothdesigns (she has a really cool ETSY store) said,
She likes forts, I still do.

i'd encourage you to click on their links, most had a photo to accompany the meme.

Anyway, i only stumbled in the blog stream a couple of times, which is pretty good for me, before i came back home and started thinking. My dog, Morris, helped me out in my endeavors by deciding he needed to go out at 5 am, even though he'd already gotten my hubby up at 3:50 am for the same trip. After 5 i couldn't get back to sleep, so the wheels started (rustily) turning in my brain.

i came up with ones about the state of my body:
Shouldn't i be thin? Guess not. And, Gray at 50? I'M NOT READY!

Then the state of my mind, with it's companion of fibromyalgia:
My brain's awake, my body's not.

i got philosophical:
My life is not an interruption. and, Live mercy, your soul's best friend.

Now, those were pretty good, i thought, but the first thought i had was the one that stuck with me, and tells my story best:


Can i be a cynical optimist?

i've always had the Pollyanna thing going: Look for the best in things!! But at the same time, i'm giving life the stink-eye, having learned that everybody does not want to play nicely. I'm a regular dichotomy, really.

SO: allow me to tag you: Tersie at The Road to Total Growth-Body Mind and Spirit, Jo at Bits and Pieces, new blog-friend Hinsley at The Oxygen Chronicles, and Betina at B-Happy, and Jen at These pretty things. If you'd like to play, remember to link back here and all that stuff in the fine print. ;-)

7 comments:

bookbabie said...

Yes, you definitely can be a cynical optimist, great play on words! Excellent memoir and illustration:)

Anonymous said...

I love it! Love your 'rejects' too! Thanks for the shout-out to my blog. I'm going to nose around yours for a bit.

julia said...

Thanks for coming by! Hope you ladies keep on comin' to visit!

Jen said...

Julie... It's going to take me some time to think of this. I really want it to be "Don't have the brains for this", but I think that's just how I feel tonight! Hopefully if no one is vomiting or has diarrhea I'll get it up tomorrow!

Betina said...

This looks like fun. I am going to think about it and post some of my own 6-word memoirs. What a fun idea, thanks for including me!

julia said...

Oh, Betina, good good! i really hope you do! And i look forward to what you come up with. i remember the very first post of yours i saw was a take on the "Priceless" commercials, with your daughter in Disneyland, and ends with: "watching my daughter pick her nose at the Happiest Place on Earth: Priceless." I've loved ya ever since!

http://bhappenings.blogspot.com/2006/06/disney-dollars.html

julia said...

Oh--i forgot: "pick her nose AND EAT IT"... ;-)

Jen! i truly hope you take on the challenge! it was pretty fun--