This post has been a long time coming. I was in a rush to get this blog going before the summer began at Omega, where I am program curriculum developer. I had a sense I was going to be swamped when the summer began, and I was right. I’ve been running hither and yon almost nonstop since my last post in May. My life has since quieted down some. Enough, anyway, to get back to this blog and start communicating with you often.

A few weeks ago I was a moderator for a panel discussion at Omega’s Memoir Festival. As part of my introductory remarks, I listed a few qualities I found in each of the memoirs I’d read by all the faculty teaching that weekend. Far be it from me to predict that my list would be such a hit.

Many people came up to me throughout the weekend to ask me for the list, and when I showed them they wrote it down. Alphie McCourt, one of the faculty members, joked that he thought the words should be engraved on a couple of stone tablets.

I think what happened is that these qualities are universal qualities of a life lived fully. And, as such, they capture the qualities we want to see in any memoir.

And now, the list: fear, failure, doubt, guilt, hope, shame, confusion, euphoria, bewilderment, ambivalence, disappointment, expectation, dislocation, pain, heartbreak, love, lust, decision, indecision, adjustment, loneliness, rage, and redemption.

Can you think of any others?