Can 6 Words Sum Up Your Life?
For my birthday a few days ago, I received a copy of the neat little volume, Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six Word Memoirs from Writers Famous and Obscure.
It’s a collection of 1,000 six-word memoirs from writers attempting to summarize their life experience in six words.
The introduction thinly lays claim to Hemingway being the first to write a six-word story. It’s said Hem responded to the challenge with, “For Sale: Baby Shoes, Never Worn.”
Regardless of whether Hemingway initiated the fun, it’s actually quite a challenge to come up with six words that summarize your life. Most Solo-Dads I know have quite a few six-word memoirs in them!
Yesterday, Little Elvis and I were sitting outside at our local Starbucks, taking turns reading the memoirs aloud. Some are hilarious while some are poignant, even sad.
Here are some examples of what got LE cracking up:
“Bad brakes discovered at high speed.” -Paul Schultz
“Living for Jesus because Earth sucks.” -Johnny Johnson
“Seventy years, few tears, hairy ears.” -Bill Querrenguesser
A few of my favorites included:
“After Harvard, had baby with crackhead.” -Robin Templeton
“Happiest when ignoring huge financial debt.” -Ayanna Bryan
“Lived in moment, until moment sucked.” -Janine Goss
“Verbal hemophilia. Why can’t I clot?” -Scott Mebus
There are many others…993 to be exact, that you’ll have to buy to the book to enjoy.
Solo-Dad’s Six-Word Memoirs
I’ve come up with a few six-word memoirs I could readily apply to my life, thus far.
Here are some:
“Four kids. Starbucks Coffee. Life’s good!”
“Too many degrees, not enough savings.”
“Wised up and left the tribe.”
“Waded into marriage, ran back ashore.”
What About You?
Want to take the Six-Word-Memoir challenge and sum up your life as a Solo-Dad (or Mom)? Got more than one? Give it some thought and share them below in a comment!
