WHY TO WRITE THE "STORY" OF YOUR LIFE
PUTTING LIFE AND ALL ITS PIECES INTO REALITY AND PERSPECTIVE
MEMORIES...
In the book A Million Miles In A Thousand Years, Donald Miller meets Bob, who is an American lawyer who also is a consul for Uganda (there's a story to that!). Bob, it seems, has written 500+ pages of memories of his life.
"The saddest thing about life is you don't remember...not even a tiny percentage" of it. Bob says he "captures memories, because if he forgets them, it's as though they didn't happen..."
So, besides what that implies (or whateve you "infer" from that), I was inspired to see what value might be derived from writing the story of my life (though I'm sure it wouldn't be a hot seller, despite it seeming certainly significant to me.)
PERSPECTIVE, EVEN LESSONS
One of the things it does for me is that it helps put pieces of my life into perspective.
Some pieces felt so traumatic at the time, like the world was coming to an end, especially if so and so didn't love me or if I didn't get a good grade on the exam or if somebody might find out that I was not very smart... But as I wrote, I could see that it all passed and the traumas and dramas meant very little, if anything. A lot even drifted away from my memory, disappearing into the thin air into nothingness - even though it seemed a big deal at the time.
Small stuff...
But, methinks, a lot of what happens in life is not really a big deal - and that it fits into the category of small stuff, as in the book Don't Sweat The Small Stuff - And It's All Small Stuff. (Unless of course, you die - but then I thinketh that thou will not feel bad about any of it...)
(I write a bit around this topic in The Concentric Rings Of Importance - Placing The Small Stuff Of Life In Its Right Place and in Proper And Proportionate Response.)
But, I think, you'll get more understanding not from reading those pieces but from actually doing the writing of the memories. I'd suggest that you do them in a chronological order so that you can go back and fill out some of the missed parts later as you think of them and/or feel more inclined to write about them.
You might even appreciate your being "very human" - and how great that is, being on the "roller coaster" of life, but enjoying it this time...in the wonderful retrospective of 20/20 hindsight. (And if you understand it all, and put the pieces together, it might turn out that you didn't need cranialrectal surgery after all!)
Easy, fun, sentimental, experiential...
Writing about all of this stuff is very, very easy - and enjoyable. And sometimes sentimental...or meaningful...or ...
"But," you say, "I'd rather live my future experiences."
"Well," might be the reply, "I'll bet you could create a huge amount more experiences per hour if you recalled your past experiences... D'ya think?" (And you'll have plenty of time left for future experiences, that might be richer because you have done this.)
Lessons
And, I think, it would be good to write down what you believe you have learned from it - for such reflection and thinking can lead to deriving lessons that provide a true perspective on life.
Maybe that you shouldn't have numbed out so much, or had your life be so much about TV (except for the true meaningfulness of All My Children). Or how much better life might have been if you were not stuck in the scarcity syndrome or the "not enough" (I need more) artificial-suffering-creating syndrome.
Re-writes, anyone?
Perhaps you might even write a fanciful version of what you would do now if you had a "re-do", as either Palmer or Nicklaus (maybe both) did after missing a shot, where they repracticed it perfectly afterwards before going on to the next shot...
Or you could re-write the meaning of your past life, with new interpretations and understanding, especially with the perspective that you couldn't have known more at the time than you did. (See Limits Of Our Awareness and the perspective on No Fault.)
What, me laugh?
And when you get that "true perspective", I think, you'll probably laugh more at life - without some writer having to tell you that you should "laugh at life", for your health or whatever. (I laughed out loud about Donald Miller's observations and quips in his book!)
I, for sure, laugh at some of my teenage antics and what I took so seriously, including pimples and girls - and even on into the 20's, perhaps into the '30's, and the '40's...the 50's...the '60's...though I'm so wise now that I am probably beyond beyond.
Maybe, go deeper?
You might choose initially, or go back later, to describe things in more detail, what you thought (or "what the h... was I thinking?!!!"), and what you felt (and if the feeling was good you might get to repeat the feeling of it! Maybe a sweet tear or two...).
You might even recall the richness of life
Wasn't it delightful to experience the wonderfulness of babies (even with the slobber), sunsets (I could've used seeing more sunrises), romance (and tingly feelings), intense feelings, being human and having so many great feelings and abilities and opportunities...times of bliss (sex?), wondering if there was a God (and what his judgment of you might be at the Pearly Gates), feeling "inspired, touched, and moved (like only humans can do!), tears of compassion coming to your eyes, maybe even the human comedy of it all (that we mistakenly took so seriously)...
And so many, many experiences (especially different episodes of All My Children, and Law And Order). Maybe even of the advent of TV (before the iPod) and Laugh In.
And you might even see how all the dots of life connect. And, gee, you might even discover that "nothing bad really happened" as you are still intact (though a bit chubbier perhaps) and able to still live the wonders of being human...
Maybe create something different?
You may find that your life was more of a series of random experiences than a theme or a "build". At that point you can decide if you want your life to be about random experiences or if you will choose to design it so that things happen that you really want. You might even write the story of your future life...or decide to Read Ten Pages A Day of some meaningful teachings in a book (or on this site).
You might want, instead, to create a life that has a straight line to what is really meaningful to you (with, of course, some fun meaningful things along the way, or, maybe, just fun!) You might even write on your bucket list what some of those might be so that you have a list of things to be spontaneous about...). Perhaps you might even want to create a LifePlan and a super-design for your future "this time around."
A MEMORIES NOTEBOOK?
You might even choose to also do a life in pictures or in Memories Notebook format. And you might even decide that it would be a good thing to occasionally look through that book, to rekindle good feeling and to regain a perspective on your life and the richness of it, perhaps doing this as part of your Daily Grounding And Centering before going out into the daily swirl. You might consider doing what I did in The Wisdom Course, where we created a "one page" a year, with key thoughts, pictures, significant events (in life and in the world)...
A DELIGHTFUL BOOK WITH MEANING
This actually has some life lessons in it, which was why I bought it. And I found it made me laugh out loud while I was learning to see and appreciate life even more. It's magical, playful, fun...:
A Million Miles In A Thousand Years, Donald Miller
