Can We Talk? Jewish Mothers, Scary Stories, the Six Word App That Gets Conversations Going
The beauty is in the brevity
Everyone Has a Jewish Mother
“From this you make a living?” That six word question was not asked by my own Jewish mother but one I met at a friend’s wedding.
When people ask me what I do, and I explain that I run the Six-Word Memoir Project , I tend to get two reactions: “Wow! I heard you on NPR! You’ve made a bunch of books! My kid’s teacher gave a six word lesson! You have a media empire!” Or: “From this you make a living?” The answer is, of course, somewhere in between. In six words, I describe what I do as:
“Compassionately hustling and counting the words.”
I’m thinking about Jewish mothers both because, well, it’s a very Jewish time of year (we love a fall holiday!) and because at a recent corporate workshop I led, I asked employees to describe what they do briefly and clearly. Unsurprisingly, someone said, “I really don’t know how to sum up my job; I wish I could because my parents really have no idea what I do.” The good news was, helping people sum up their lives is exactly what I do!
My job — whether leading a workshop of fifth graders in an elementary school or a team of marketing executives in the ballroom at The Ritz — is to help unlock stories with six words. The creative constraint of the six word format forces all of us to get to the essence of who we are and what we do. So if you’re stuck on describing your job, think about a word — any word — that you hear often in your work day. At a talk with Yelp salespeople, I asked someone to shout out that word and they said, “No!” The room erupted with laughter and then exploded with six word stories of their work: “No, I cannot change a review.” “No, that’s really my last discount.” “No, I won’t try your pizza!” At a Dropbox workshop the word was “work.” And Netflix? That was a tough one but “binge” beat “chill” by a hair.
Why is it important to be able to describe your work succinctly and meaningfully? Getting to the essence of your job in exactly six words forces you to dig into the nuance of what you do and why. Just the process of finding those six words forces you to find out if you’ve lost your way, and if you have, perhaps even helps you find your way back. Once you find your six words, you’ll have no difficulty describing your job to the Jewish (or other) mother, co-worker, employer, or date in your life.
Six-Word Memoir App: Create Connection and a Creative Keepsake
The Six-Word Memoir app is here! Our beta version of the app is a tool that enables anyone to create a Six-Word Memoirs topic of their choosing as a way to celebrate an event, a community, a company, or an organization.
Since we launched the app, we’ve seen glorious things happen as folks have invited friends to share six word birthdays wishes (happy birthday, Anders!), advice for couples getting married (Whitney and her cowboy husband cried tears of joy when they saw their book of wishes and advice from their guests), and missions around a cause (shout-out to my friends at the Mid-Ohio Food Bank). How many different ways could you use this app? The only limit is your imagination.
We’re riding high on how the Six-Word app is being used before and during shared celebrations. If you’re having a wedding this fall and want to invite your guests to share six word wishes and advice, please get in touch. We’ll make you a beautiful and free book of Six Word Wishes as a thank you for sharing your feedback.
Quick Six: What’s Cooking on SixWordMemoirs.com
• Our Newest SixContest: For SixContest #147, we’d like you to write your very own haunted short story. From ghosts with unfinished business (“The whistling wind whispered her name…” —CarolineLC) to shadows lurking around the corner (“She’s home alone, but he appeared.” —Carsonreidy), Sixers are embracing the spine-chilling essence of October. The contest ends October 31st, so be sure to submit an entry on the contest page or leave a comment below and you can win the Six-Word Memoir book of your choice!
• October’s Classroom of the Month: After discovering I Can't Keep My Own Secrets: Six-Word Memoirs by Teens Famous & Obscure, our collection of Six-Word Memoirs created by and for teens, Angela Stone at Hononegah Community High School in Rockton, Illinois found Six-Word Memoirs to be an ideal ice breaker activity for her freshmen and sophomore students. But soon the secret was out: “Now, Six-Word Memoirs is being used at all four of our grade levels,” says Stone. “With my own English classes, the six word form is a way to get my students using more figurative language in their writing.” Read more about our Classroom of the Month.
• Illustrate It in Six! Illustrated memoirs are a beautiful and imaginative way to view Six-Word Memoirs — and we’re always looking for more submissions. Don’t forget to tell the artists, students, and teachers in your life to submit their art to the website. Check out our gallery of illustrations.
Short Cut: Six-Word Reviews
From Substack: As a digital colorist, Marina Amaral describes the process of balancing extensive historical research and faithful restoration, as well as artistic expression. Her newsletter The Colour of Time with Marina Amaral has remastered photos of theatrical Civil War spies, influential women throughout the centuries, and even the dramatic search for renown author-gone-missing, Agatha Christie. Amidst grayscale and digitalization, she discusses the historical figures in each colorized photo, and their lasting impact. Amaral pushes the limits of our familiarity with history and questions how the addition of color affects a modern audience.
Six-Word Memoir's Danielle Shum's Six-Word Review: “Breathing hues of life; digitized antiquity.”
From the World: Amitav Ghosh's novel The Shadow Lines follows the lives of an unnamed narrator and his uncle Tridib through a cobweb of letters, memories, flashbacks, photos, and stories within stories told by multiple characters. The narrator's experience mirrors his uncle's. However, the two remain separated for most of the novel, suggesting that these compelling storylines belong to a holistic whole, inseparable from each other, dissolving the shadowy transient lines of nationality and individuality.
Six-Word Memoirs' Dewansh Chauhan's Six-Word Review: "Story inside story of a story."
A Picture is Worth 6,000 Words
Using the Six-Word app, friends wrote more than 100 “Six Word Birthday Wishes and Memories” for Anders Porter on his 50th birthday and then created personalized koozies from the content. Get your own six word party started at www.sayitinsix.com.
Six words, each day by me
Promised before, but this time true