The other day I listened as my former sister-in-law told her younger brother a story from years ago. It happened when they lived in Japan and he was a blond-haired boy. One day as the family picnicked near a river, a crowd gathered to admire and photograph him and exclaim over his beautiful hair color, which is, of course, rare in Japan.
As he posed for their pictures, he slipped and fell into the river and started to be carried away in the current, his blond head bobbing above the surface. Panicking, the sister dove in and saved him, dragged him to shore and stood him up to comfort him.
But rather than crying he broke into a broad grin and laughed. He had loved the experience, at least according to her telling of the tale.
Her story struck me as very similar to one I tell about their nephew, who is my oldest son, when he was a toddler. One rainy winter's day after parking my leaky 1966 Volvo sedan on one of San Francisco's notoriously slanted streets, I got out and went around to open the back door and lift my son out of his carseat.
But the precocious young fellow had already unbuckled his restraint and quick as a flash he simply slipped out of the open door into the space between the car and the curb under a small but raging river of rainwater coursing down the hill.
I freaked but was able to grab him before he was swept away by that filthy water. As I lifted him up, he broke into a hysterical laugh. He had loved every minute of it, at least according to how I tell the story.
As I read through other people's memoirs and teach memoir-writing myself, the nature of these simple family stories is a constant source of amazement to me. When the writers cover a broad swath of their family history, I notice a pattern whereby similar stories tend to repeat themselves generation to generation. It makes me wonder why we select the stories we want to remember from the (literally) millions of choices we have about each other.
Consistent with the two stories cited above, but with an added twist, one of my granddaughters, who is now ten, recently told me her own getting-all-wet story. "It was raining really hard outside one night, Grandpa. So I took off my shoes and ran up and down our block getting completely soaked head to toe. I was screaming with joy because I loved it!"
Clearly, our family lore places some sort of value on our kids rejoicing in getting wet in ways that others might find uncomfortable. Why these stories? I have no idea.
It is my theory that families have passed on oral traditions like these down through the millennia and that the stories they choose emphasize characteristics they wish to propagate among their progeny.
If I am right, maybe my children's great-great-great-grandfather told a similar story about one of his siblings or kids two hundred years before ours. For all we know, these types of tales may date from thousands of years ago.
And now we pass them forward.
(Excepted from a 2021 essay.)
HEADLINES:
More than 100 killed in Texas floods, with 11 still missing from Camp Mystic (BBC)
Debate erupts over role Trump cuts played in response to deadly Texas floods (AP)
Trump and Netanyahu Meet as New Middle East Tests Loom (WSJ)
Trump and Netanyahu Expected to Discuss Prospects of Gaza Cease-Fire (NYT)
Trump announces tariffs of at least 25 percent on seven countries (WP)
BRICS nations push back as Trump warns of tariffs (NPR)
No Coherent Policy — Who’s Running American Defense Policy? (Atlantic)
How Elon Musk’s Third Party Gamble Could Succeed (Politico Mag)
Is the Hispanic Red Wave for Trump Starting to Crash? (New Yorker)
US troops on the ground in LA immigration enforcement operation, DOD says (ABC)
Justice Department, driven by Trump policy, plans to go after naturalized U.S. citizens (Miami Herald)
Are We About to Have Labor Camps in the United States of America? (TNR)
Political violence poses an existential threat to our nation and our freedoms—but it’s not too late. (Atlantic)
U.S. measles cases reach 33-year record high as outbreaks spread (WP)
Docs sue RFK Jr. over COVID vax policy changes (Axios)
Humans Are Fast Evolving Into an Astonishing Lifeform (Psychology Today)
Which Workers Will A.I. Hurt Most: The Young or the Experienced? (NYT)
Journalist Karen Hao on Sam Altman, OpenAI & the "Quasi-Religious" Push for Artificial Intelligence (Democracy Now)
She Wanted to Save the World From A.I. Then the Killings Started. (NYT)
Allergists Recommend Allergy Sufferers Retreat Underground To Form Pollen-Free, Cave-Dwelling Society (The Onion)
No comments:
Post a Comment