Life in six words
I read this really fascinating article in a newspaper today titled “Your life, in just six words”. Basically, the idea is that people can sum up their entire life in just six words. Yup, six words. It sounds pretty easy until you sit down and try to think of a six-word phrase for your own life, and then you realize what a challenging task it is. It reminds me of the time my junior AP English teacher showed us several 100-word stories submitted to the New York Times for a writing contest, and then asked us to write one of our own. It was really really hard, but once you start trimming unnecessary words and making better word choices, you realize what a powerful writing exercise it is. I still have the one I wrote laying around somewhere, and I’ll post it later this week.
Beauty in simplicity is something I’ve always believed in. It’s somehow more powerful, more deep, when something is said so simply. It hits you harder, takes your breath away. Take the example by Hemingway below:
This memoir thing started with Hemingway. Someone asked for a six-word story. He wrote a very sad one. “For sale: baby shoes, never worn.”
All sorts of background stories start forming in my mind the minute I read those sad words. Perhaps a couple who really wants to have children found out they’re infertile. Maybe a woman has just miscarried a child, or an infant might have died suddenly and unexpectedly. I see pain and sorrow and grief, all poignant emotions, wrapped into those six words, and I love its sheer conciseness. Even though it’s only a handful of words, it still manages to convey a lifetime of meaning.
Writer Larry Smith founded an online magazine called SMITH and there’s a subsection for submissions of six-word memoirs. He’s even published a compilation of the best of those submissions (Not Quite What I Was Planning), and there’s two more to come, centered around love and teenagers, respectively. It really is an intriguing idea. Some are really funny, some sweet, some absolutely heartbreaking:
Eric Jordan spoke for everyone with: “I was born some assembly required.”
Then there was singer-songwriter Aimee Mann: “Couldn’t cope so I wrote songs.”
Joyce Carol Oates seemed pretty mad: “Revenge is living well without you.”
So I’m curious to know what your own six-word phrases might be, if you’re willing to share them. I thought about it long and hard, and this is mine for the life I’ve experienced so far: Choose love and hope, not tears.
Those are really strong and poignant. I don’t know at this point what six words I would put together to make the story of my life. It would take a lot of consideration and thought to condense myself down that much. I am going to try it, though.
Boo! Monokuro Boo! Ugh…piggies…too…cuuute… losing conciousness…
Six word phrase to sum up my life? Ugh, tough! I love yours, though. I think mine would be: I’ll be forever in Odins thrall.
Hmmn…I’d really like to try and write mine but right now I can only come up with 5 words! LOL.
I’m going to set aside some time tomorrow to think about it.
Thank you for sharing the article!!! ^_^
hmmm:
“Caring is work, work is caring.”
i think… that phrase is pretty predominant in my life right now. it’s like a love/hate thing in every aspect of my life, professionally and personally. Interesting post =)
A constant search for something more.
Those six words pretty much sums up my entire being. Unfortunately.
I read this awhile back somewhere, and I had tried then to come up with my own 6 words. Right at this moment, the only thing I can come up with is “I have a reason to live”
Unseen movie, overpriced popcorn – no refund.
I don’t know if I could do the six words thing, my life is just so lost right now that I think I would try and describe too much in to little words ahahaha but it’s an interesting idea.
Live in fear and miss opportunities.
I’m not sure if this is a life thing, but it does basically sum up my year.
You love, lose, learn and live.
A very interesting read, if I may say so. And yes, less is more, indeed. :)
Good blog… I don’t know yet what my six words are… I’ll think about it. :)
What a cute, interesting post. I don’t know what my 6 words would be. I will have to think about it and get back with you. The 6 words about the baby shoes…how very sad.
btw, thanks for commenting on my humble corner of the web.
Explaining your life in six word phrases is very hard for me. I haven’t experienced that much of life.
The line you quoted is strong and I like how he/she wrote that. Very meaningful.
Hmmm, I guess if I had to sum up my like in six words it would be:
laugh, be random; while you can. :D
You’re right that was harder than I though it would be.
Mine is: They did not love me enough.
I guess this cool article got around because I blogged about it back in March. :)
My six words were, “Perpetual dreamer seeking truth, knowledge, love.”
That is very interesting. I think it’s very important to take the time to do exercises like that. It not only makes you see your situation for how it is, but gives you a larger perspective.
For me, if I was to think about my six words, they could be something like the ones I have chosen today. But if I was in a better mood and in a happier place, they might be quite different.
I see the invisible sunlight fall.
Something else, I love to do is three minute fiction. You just write for three minutes, without worrying about anything. You just get what is locked in your head onto the page. Sometimes it can lead you down strange and interesting paths, but it definitely sparks creativity.