Why Are These Six Words Different From All Other Six Words?
A conversation starter for this night and all other nights
“Passover Food Coma, Again Next Year”
“We are not a concise people,” so shares the writer Joel Stein in the Six Words on Jewish Life book. And still: not everyone at the seder table will lean into the conversation. Adding a six word prompt to your seder — or to any gathering around a dinner table — is an ice breaker and simple way to get everyone involved.
Each Passover, I receive beautiful reports about how Six-Word Memoirs has found a place at seders across the world, but the good news for the 97.6 percent of the U.S. population who aren’t Jewish is that you can swap in the word Christian, Hindu, Buddhist, Zoroastrian, Atheist, or spiritual practice of your choice for “Jewish” below, and it works just fine.
Here’s a tried and true way to engage friends and family of all ages.
1. Ask everyone to take a few minutes to think of six words on Jewish life. These six words could be very general or quite specific. For example:
• What are six words to describe what being Jewish means to you?
• Can you share a thought about Passover in six words?
• Write a fifth question for the group to discuss, formed in exactly six words.
2. Go around the table and have everyone share their six words.
3. Give anyone who’s game a chance to take a minute or two to share the “backstory” to their six words. If you have a large group, narrow it down by asking just the oldest and the youngest person at the table to tell the group a little bit more.
Thanks to my partner in Six Words on Jewish Life, Reboot, a nonprofit arts and culture org that always gets a conversation started. And wishing a peaceful Passover to those celebrating the holiday wherever they may be.
New Contest: Swimming in Sixes
For SixContest #156, the challenge is to use the word “swim” in a Six-Word Memoir. Do you have nostalgia and long for past summers spent by the ocean? Tell us about the time you went swimming with sharks — or the fierce equivalent in your everyday life. Are you swimming in a sea of sorrow or a pool of possibility? Jump in and share whatever “swim” means to you in six words.
Community Member Props: John Roedel
It’s tough to pick a favorite among the 2,491 stories John Roedel has written since joining Six Words in 2012 under the handle JohnBigJohn. So I’ll go with one of his first: “Son’s autism broke and rebuilt me.” “Six-Word Memoirs was the place where I first started cutting my teeth as a writer,” says Roedel, now the author of four books and a popular Substack, Around The Campfire. “The incredible collection of writers on the site taught me how to trust myself and the words I was stringing together. This community is where I found my voice.” Roedel’s writing journey continues as he leads the writing workshop The Unafraid Storytelling at Maine’s Madeline Island School of the Arts this summer.
Parting Six: The Wisdom of George Takei
The 87th birthday of Star Trek actor and children’s book author George Takei is as good a reason as any to recall the beautiful words he offers in The Best Advice in Six Words collection: “Share your story, change the world.” Read more out-of-this-galaxy wisdom in his interview in The New York Times, “To Live Long and Prosper, Do What George Takei Does.”