Your Memoir, the Way You Want It | | | |  | |
Ritual and Language as Lifelines
I attended two weddings and a memorial service this month. Witnessing and sharing in the joy and grief of families who were either celebrating their loved ones’ marriages or mourning a beloved person’s death made me keenly attuned to how we turn to ritual and language as we navigate our complex, interconnected lives.
Life can be chaotic and overwhelming in good times and bad. Centuries-old rituals of mourning and celebration allow us to contain or give shape to the experiences of grief and love by grounding us in heritage and community. A client publishing a genealogy book with us used the following quotation from novelist John Dos Passos in his introduction to express such a sentiment:
“In times of change and danger when there is a quicksand of fear under men’s reasoning, a sense of continuity with generations gone before can stretch like a lifeline across the scary present and get us past that idiot delusion of the exceptional NOW that blocks good thinking.”
When faced with momentous changes in life, knowing that people before us have exchanged rings to represent a lifelong commitment to each other, or that they have spoken the same words or prayers we speak today to grieve a loved one’s passing, can make us feel less alone. By enacting such rituals and saying such words, we situate ourselves in a human community that has made big commitments and suffered great losses before us. We also pass on these traditions and this language to those who will come after us.
We are not the first to take leaps of faith, or to face bereavement, and we won’t be the last. Ritual and language passed down through generations can be a source of strength, comfort, and inspiration in our lives. I know our clients know this because so many of them are inspired to write about their family history and their lives in order to preserve for their descendants the traditions and words that were lifelines for them.
Megan St. Marie
President
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Click on the promotional photo above to listen to episodes of the new podcast "All There Is with Anderson Cooper"
Modern Memoirs founder, Kitty Axelson-Berry, recently called to tell us about a moving TV segment with CNN host Anderson Cooper. In it, he talks about how his grief over losing his mother, Gloria Vanderbilt, led him to start a new podcast in which he talks with others about “the people we lose, the things they leave behind, and how we can live on with loss and love.”
Anderson’s young children inspired him to do this project, as did his experience of going through his mother’s things after her death. Since many of our clients’ books originate from similar sources of inspiration, we thought our newsletter readers would be interested in listening to the podcast, as well. If you do so, we’d love to hear your responses, so please drop us a line.
Link to the podcast
“All There Is with Anderson Cooper”
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Flowers sent to Modern Memoirs from a happy client |
Small Projects of Great Importance
While most of our clients come to Modern Memoirs with book-length projects, we also work with people who need writing or editing services for smaller pieces. These include:
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Obituaries for people who want help paying tribute to a loved one who has died;
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Advance Obituaries for those engaged in end-of-life planning;
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Ethical Wills or Legacy Letters for people who wish to make a personal statement of the values and intangible gifts they wish to pass on to their descendants;
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Orders of Service and Vows for weddings;
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and Eulogies, Wedding Toasts, and other remarks for important occasions.
Oftentimes, clients want such pieces of writing to originate with them, and they ask us for editing to help polish their words to best express their feelings and intentions. Other people are completely overwhelmed at the thought of writing a eulogy, obituary, toast, or wedding vows, and so they come to us to help them organize their thoughts and capture the words from their hearts.
Our goal is always to professionally and sensitively work with our clients to complete these small projects of such great importance, some of which end up in books they go on to create down the road. Contact us today to discuss a small project of your own.
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Featured Blog Posts by Our Staff | |
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Reflections from Client
Paul Jensen
Interview by Genealogist Liz Sonnenberg
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Guiding Writers in Reflecting on Good Times and Bad
By Megan St. Marie
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Cover Stamping
by Director of Publishing Ali de Groot
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I’ve always been fascinated with vintage book covers, like the one above, published by Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1902. Cover stamps are as important as the title and the cover materials of a book. Leather or cloth? Reds, blues, greens, browns? Hues—burgundy, cherry, persimmon, crimson? Embossment—vicuana, bison, kid, linen? Foil stamping—gold, silver, copper, chrome?
Book cover stamps vary as greatly as their authors. Sometimes an author wants a particular custom design, such as a family crest, a flower, or map of a home state. Other times it’s simply the title in a modest frame. We love the art of stamping and are excited when we can really go “all out,” as on this recently published, romantic memoir below. Cover design by Modern Memoirs Book Designer Nicole Miller.
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September Question:
What is a favorite classic book of yours?
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Staff responses
Megan St. Marie: Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston (1937)
Sean St. Marie: Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman (1855)
Ali de Groot: Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky (1866)
Liz Sonnenberg: Nancy Drew mystery #19, The Quest of the Missing Map by Carolyn Keene, ghostwritten by Mildred Wirt Benson (1942)
Nicole Miller: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis (1950)
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Memory Lane Stroll
We’d love to hear your brief personal reflections on the question of the month. Write your response for a chance to be featured in the next edition of our e-newsletter!
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Though our August 2022 edition was the most-read of any we’ve sent out in our first year of monthly newsletters, we did not receive any responses to the question, "What is a memory that brings up nostalgia for you?"
Feel free to reply to this question or to the September question if you’d like to do so this month.
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Stop by to see us in person or online:
495 West Street, Suite 1C
Amherst, MA 01002
www.modernmemoirs.com
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