I am from a small family of four where I always knew I was loved by parents who had no parents of their own and who taught me to think, to use logic and explore who I am. I am from a place where I was the day-dreaming kid sister to a brother four years my senior, who never understood me and probably never will.

Hey, Sandy, did you mean to "steal" my answer up above? Do we really have that stuff in common or did you just forget to erase my answer after you copied/pasted the question format?

Jean

Sorry, Jean, i forgot to delete it. thanks for pointing it out!

sandy :blush:

Sandy,

It might be fun if you'd make a list of some of the roads you've taken that you don't think anyone else on this site as taken. You might be surprised and find out you're not so different from the rest of us after all. Don't you think that a lot of us have done wild and crazy things on our way to becoming grown-ups? And those of us in middle America have probably done a lot of things you haven't done.

Jean

I have a feeling the person my mother warned me about was an older man with wandering hands.

And as an English migrant child in a newly developing diversified suburb mainly populated by other migrants and refugees I knew people from everywhere else in the atlas.

As Jean says it is surprising the different expereinces life has given us, and yet how much we still all have in common.

Sue.

maybe it's just that the happy spin that the others who did this writing exercise prompted me to view it in a different way. something about growing up in America, especially if you were white, christian, and did not live in a major metropolitan area, had always come with a fair amount of denial, at least in my eyes. i always liked the Rolling Stones more than The Beatles, Bob Dylan more than Peter, Paul and Mary, Kanye West more than Will Smith, Mary J. Blige more than Britney Spears.

so i'll leave you with one expereince from the vaults-how many on Strokenet have seen The Rocky Horror Picture Show in the movies more than 10 times?

sandy :giggle:

Sandy,

My sub-title line for my blog reads: "Knowing what to forget is just as important as knowing what to remember." I say that because I truly believe that people are happier when we are able to put the detailed memories of our hardships and tradegies to rest and concentrate on the happier times. Sure, we need to work through them, learn our lessons from them, and recognized that our lives are formed by both the good and the bad BUT wearing the bad experiences around like a plate of armor isn't going to make anyone happy in the long run.

I think the whole purpose of these kinds of writing exercises is to help us connect with our past and get our creative juices flowing. Whether or not a person puts a positive or negative spin on their writing says a lot about a person's general outlook on life, don't you think? We all have histories with a mixed bag of experiences. I prefer to make the CHOICE not to let the bad experiences have too much power over me.

Jean

P.S. I liked Dylan better than Peter, Paul and Mary too.

Jean

i just feel that having memories that are mixed are:

1) more artistically creative;

2) less likely to leave one dwelling in the realm of denial;

3) more prone to cause positive social change;

4) more humorous.

if i had a feeling that folks with more "mixed" memories were doing this writing exercise, i perhaps would not have made the point so strongly...but then again, the words flowing together sounded so good. sister Pam, where are you when i need you?

sandy :cocktail:

ps another three from the vaults:

who (except for M.D.) has been a practicing Wiccan and belonged to a coven?

who has heard the His Holiness The Dalai Lama speak in person several times, including attending a 3 day conference in which he was a participant?

who has made a full recovery from a diagnosis of ahpasia (and i have the paers to prove it)?

i think that the point is (drum roll, please.....) everybody is different, differences are what make us unique individuals and should be cherished, differences are what make us part of the same human condition and make us equivalent, with the same rights and privileges. this should be especially remembered on the birthday weekend of one of the greatest champion of civil reights in America, Dr. Martin Luther King