Six-word memoir

On Facebook, one of the writer-support sites I follow is holding a 'six-word memoir' contest. I've seen these before - the objective is to actually summarize your life, your philosophy, lessons learned, whatever, in just six words. I've also seen contests for 'six-word stories.' Probably the most famous of these stories is by Ernest Hemingway. "For sale: Baby shoes. Never worn." Tells the whole, horrible story, right?

As a writer, capturing a story or a memoir in a measly six words is an interesting exercise in being concise. To say the least.

I enjoyed reading some of the submissions. Some evoke a clear mood:

- I do not belong here people!
- I left a million dollars in...
- I told you I was ill!

Others were clever:
- Your memoir using only six words.

And still others took the philosophical approach:
- I am a child of God.
- Evolving, one word at a time.

Here's mine:
- Support laughter, challenge growth, create faith

What's yours?

Understanding Palin, Everett, and Lincoln by their words

Matt Lauer on Today interviewed Sarah Palin this morning. Palin jabbed at her usual targets, using her pet phrase "go rogue" and more cliches than I could count. This time she added a new catch-phrase, calling the press the 'lamestream media.' Another Palin-ism to be tweeted around the world.

Time for me to use the remote.

I flipped to the History Channel, to a program about the aftermath of the Battle at Gettysburg and the creation of the national cemetery there. It seems that, at the dedication ceremony, the main orator was Edward Everett, former president of Harvard and a respected politician. Everett spoke for two hours - two hours!- delivering an eloquent speech. If his audience was anything like us, his points were forgotten in a communal stupor. Next speaker up, President Abraham Lincoln. He faced his probably glassy-eyed audience and delivered his two-page, two minute long Gettysburg Address, capturing the essence of the sacrifice given by the soldiers at Gettysburg and reiterating the importance of holding true to America as one nation.

The contrasting styles weren't lost on me. Palin's cheeky attempts to create buzz words, Everett forgotten diatribe, and Lincoln's succinct, insightful, and memorable words are writing lessons of the nth degree.