Please Remember
Please Remember
It is the purpose, the duty, of memoirists to bring to remembrance those things which are lasting, true, and essential.
I didn’t do it on purpose, but of the 51 books I read in 2023, 27% of them were memoirs.
Why was that?
Was I drawn to them because I was writing my own?
Or, since there are more years behind me than in front, I am instinctively drawn into remembrance.
Remembrance of what?
Some memoirists are old and close to death. They want us to remember their legacy like I, Asimov by Isaac Asimov.
Some memoirists are famous—or infamous. They want us to remember their story, and not the stories others tell about them. Like Everything is Perfect by Kate Nason, All My Knotted-Up Life by Beth Moore, Token Black Girl by Danielle Prescod, and As You Wish by Cary Elwes.
Others, perhaps not as well known, want us to remember something essential. Something that transcends their own lives in stories that go against the current culture. Like Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson, Crying in H-Mart by Michelle Zauner, How to Stay Married by Harrison Scott Key, Two Women Walk into a Bar by Cheryl Strayed, and Tastes Like War by Grace M. Cho.
I will be 66 next month.
That makes me old.
But I am not dying, not in the overt sense.
Aren’t we all dying?
Yet, my father died at 65. My sister, 63. My brother, 44. I am well aware that a long life is not promised to any of us. Or is it? There is that one promise. Honor your mother and father … so that you may live long in the land. Well, it’s questionable whether or not I honored my parents in a way that would prolong my days.
So, I had better get to it.
Not because I am famous—or infamous.
But because I have a story to tell.
One that transcends my own life.
One that goes against the current culture.
In the first two drafts, the memoir was titled True Dreams because the story pivots around a prayer that changed the trajectory of my life. Similar to a line from The Chosen, “I was one way, and now I’m completely different. And the thing that happened in between… was Him.”
My change was more subtle and gradual than that of Mary Magdalene. But my life from that point forward was one of increasingly radical faith. So much so that the only way I can justifiably communicate the dubious story is through a lens of speculation.
You may then choose to believe it. Or not.
I recently finished the 3rd draft and changed the title to Don’t Cry, Mishalariah.
Because with radical faith comes radical opposition.
Jesus tells us that in this world, we will have trouble.
But he has overcome the world.
So, to my extended family and friends. To those who have known me well. And to others who have passed me briefly on this walk called life.
I want you to please remember.
Not me …
Him.
Next Time On Earth as in Heaven
Chapter One of my speculative memoir, Don’t Cry, Mishalariah. Hopefully, the eBook will be completed and ready for purchase by late spring 2024.
Oh my word. This post alone is so well written, I cannot WAIT to start reading your book! (Also the new title is really compelling. I like it a lot.)