The Sunday Extra - Marion's answer to my question

Yup. That's Bigfoot. I saw him on a walk in the neighborhood a few weeks ago. I am clearing out silly images that are cluttering up my computer.

If anyone was curious about the question and Marion's response that I mentioned yesterday, it is posted below. If you went to her website and found it, I wanted to clarify that the question was less about the hurtful comments that have been stuck in my brain and more about how frequently I had students with hurtful comments stuck in their heads. They were adult students who had been blasted by an inept art teacher when they were young. One hurtful comment had caused them to avoid art for decades. I would try to help them let go of the comment. As most teachers report, we learn as much from the students and they learn from us.

More to come...

JMWilson says

October 31, 2020 at 9:14 am

What if the one line is a comment – something hurtful – that’s been lodged in one’s memory and needs to be laid to rest?

Reply

• marion says

  October 31, 2020 at 10:04 am

  I love this question.
  So many people are operating from long-ago destructive fuel like this.
  The key here is to set up for the reader where best to show the clever damage done by the phrase and how, if you do the work, you finally dig into it and release its power. We read memoir for transcendence. Remember that. We want to see how you learned what you now know.
  If you have literally thought of that phrase every day since it was uttered, we need to know that early in the book. If, however, you remember it only in therapy, for instance, late in life, it becomes either the end of Act One aha! or the middle of Act Two provocation for real change.
  All of this speaks to book structure and where and how to deploy what you know.
  Write well.