I apologise in advance for not using spellcheck, I was just heading out the door and had this idea I wanted to put out. I often hear people say ” I should write a book about my life”. When I hear this I tend to chuckle internally as these same individuals are usually self obsessed bores. What has occurred to me though is that over the years I have come across countless individuals who have had aspects of their lives that were extremely interesting. Often it might be some little accomplishment that would go unnoticed by the world but is held onto dearly by the accomplisher. I have my own little field where I have achieved some notoriety and 15 min of fame, but this is not what this is about. Instead I want to focus on the individuals who never had their 15 min of fame. An example would be a guy I worked with years ago. He fixed a machine that no one could figure out. This machine had brought the entire plant to a shutdown and the guy who fixed it was someone who had never been looked at twice by management, he was simply a machine operator in a different dept. I have to believe this elderly man felt some great pride in-himself for what he did but in less than 5 min it was business as usual, he was back on his machine and no one ever acknowledged what he had done. As for me I wanted to know more about him, what else had he done? Thoughts on this please? Steve
Five minutes of fame is sometimes more than some people need. To get them to open up about themselves can be difficult if they are no used to praise and like to be left alone.
Or sometimes you can just sit down and ask them and they open up like a floer longing to blossom. And they never shut up again.
I have been working with my mom about her life story because the family history we knew came from my father and his side of the family. That was how their generation kept things- manly. But I have learned so much about my mother’s life that none of is know that I am putting it down to give to my siblings for Christmas.
Its a great idea, Steve. How many lives and deeds are lost, unrecorded and un-celebrated?
There is certainly something in here, Steve. Time for us to brew our coffees and think of other things until that miracle occurs.
Oh, yeah, this is a great idea (and a great story). I have a whole collection of these that I call “life vignettes” that I once published in a book called “Things I’ve Learned from the ‘Old’”. Great idea Steve!