Oh, my goodness, Lisa. This piece is lovely. I've been obsessed with this concept lately and lacked a way to articulate it. The memory of a memory is a beautiful way to put it.
Your newspaper connection touched me as well. My great-grandfather, born in 1863, was also a newspaperman with a 65-year career as the editor of a small-town paper in rural Kansas. Sadly, I never met him. He passed four years before I was born. My mother talked about him all the time. His stories have fueled some of my work here at Projectkin.
I've been thinking about tools we can all use to map our stories into historical context. It started with the Lafayette story. I have a variation that maps history to my "Sixteen" list of American and Swiss ancestors. I will consider how to share this tool more generally.
Yes, please! You are onto something—the Lafayette project is fascinating. I absolutely love this idea. It got me thinking about other events that could be used in this way.
"...the pleasant shiver of telescoping time." It was worth reading the entire piece twice just to say that phrase out loud. Lisa Maquire hits a home run.
"My father had a memory. Then there is my memory of my father’s memory. The first memory is not only relived, it has also taken on more meaning — about the teller and the listener." You have encapsulated how remembering the past works, how it can be woven into memoir and the creation of history itself.
What a lovely illustration of this idea of living memory. James Vukelich Kaagegaabaw (author of The Seven Generations and the Seven Grandfather Teachings) writes about this concept in terms of 7 generations like a gear chain on a bicycle. In the middle of 7 generations is you and before you are your parents, grandparents, and great-parents and after you come your children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Memory of memories is as messy as memory of experiences; both are foundational.
Oh, my goodness, Lisa. This piece is lovely. I've been obsessed with this concept lately and lacked a way to articulate it. The memory of a memory is a beautiful way to put it.
Your newspaper connection touched me as well. My great-grandfather, born in 1863, was also a newspaperman with a 65-year career as the editor of a small-town paper in rural Kansas. Sadly, I never met him. He passed four years before I was born. My mother talked about him all the time. His stories have fueled some of my work here at Projectkin.
I've been thinking about tools we can all use to map our stories into historical context. It started with the Lafayette story. I have a variation that maps history to my "Sixteen" list of American and Swiss ancestors. I will consider how to share this tool more generally.
Yes, please! You are onto something—the Lafayette project is fascinating. I absolutely love this idea. It got me thinking about other events that could be used in this way.
"...the pleasant shiver of telescoping time." It was worth reading the entire piece twice just to say that phrase out loud. Lisa Maquire hits a home run.
So glad you enjoyed it!
"My father had a memory. Then there is my memory of my father’s memory. The first memory is not only relived, it has also taken on more meaning — about the teller and the listener." You have encapsulated how remembering the past works, how it can be woven into memoir and the creation of history itself.
What a lovely illustration of this idea of living memory. James Vukelich Kaagegaabaw (author of The Seven Generations and the Seven Grandfather Teachings) writes about this concept in terms of 7 generations like a gear chain on a bicycle. In the middle of 7 generations is you and before you are your parents, grandparents, and great-parents and after you come your children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Memory of memories is as messy as memory of experiences; both are foundational.
Wow, this is so true!
I agree family stories also fascinate me when they locate the subject, the teller, and the listener in world history.
I too love that phrase about telescoping time! Thanks for this vertiginous metaphor— and the examples.
Thank you for this. You managed to capture what it is I value about family history in a very eloquent way.