Adjacency in Thought
A very handy technique for relating events, people, or things in an unexpected or jarring way is to juxtapose unexpected aspects of a story. You can do the same thing to show change. I grew up watching Mutual Omaha’s Wild Kingdom. Animals seemed so vital and Marlin and Jim did not tell us how many large animals were endangered and likely to become extinct before the century ended. We are now in the middle of the rapidly expanding accelerating 6th extinction. Bits of info are temporally removed from each other but juxtaposed as both are depictions of the world that stand next to each other in many Boomers’ minds.
I often think about growing up in a sea of corn fields before connection with the outside world was instantaneous and certainly not indexed by small town libraries. There was nary any likely means of escape for a 12 year old who wanted nothing more than to teleport to Woodstock in 1969.
Most of my teenage years found me wishing I could find David Bowie albums in the five and dime of my tiny town, or transform into Patti Smith. Instead I was developing what I would discover was a deep seated need to be like a few others displaced in time and space from where they were meant to be. When I first heard Chrissy Hyne and the Pretenders sing about Akron, Ohio I knew I was not alone. She and I were standing side by side in different times and places as 14 year olds that knew that the adjacency of girl and city was a juxtaposition that made everyone uncomfortable.
There are always things that seem out of kilter, but sometimes they aren’t so much blurry as juxtaposed in an unexpected way. Calling out difference through side by side comparison does not have to be through a physical placement.
We might ask ourselves why we always think of certain people or places at the same time. I have developed a deeper understanding my feelings about events and people by how my mind connects them even though they never touched in time or space. Somehow the neurons in my brain that trigger thoughts of a friend gone many years and an apartment I once had though my friend entered or even knew of it. In the writing of memoir we can juxtapose people, places, or things through time.
I cannot think of Jacque Cousteau without thinking about the plastic island of trash in the center of the Pacific. I juxtapose them in my mind just as I do the extinction of the Northern White Rhino this past year and the massive herds of wildebeest running across the African Veldt. Unconnected yet somehow inextricably linked.
Physical Juxtaposition
Visual
Want to write about a when you were a kid? A great way to jog your memory is to use a bulletin board or white board to post pictures of or write out thoughts about childhood friends, the house where you lived, books you read, and the like. Visual cues and triggers are helpful, but there are other physical cues you can use as well.
Scents
I think most of us know that scents can evoke very strong memories. Take advantage of this wonderful almost frightening method of recalling memory.
- Did your high school nemesis chew juicy fruit gum? Purchase a pack a chew a stick or smell one when you are writing about how being in the hall during class change was stressful due to bullying.
- Cook something your mother or grandmother may have made that will fill your house with a happy scent from childhood. A scented candle can have the same effect.
- Want to recall memories about your first gear-head boyfriend? Walk by a mechanic’s garage, or into a tire shop to aid memory.
- Perfume can be very evocative and linked to time and place. Get some patchouli, lemon, or baby-powder to use as an elicitation tool of certain time periods in your life.
Auditory
Music, chimes, and bells can send out mind back in time almost instantly. The song Humming Bird by Seals and Crofts instantly transports me back to summer of 1972 when I met my best high school friend and we listened to this song constantly. It now reminds me of how few years we would have together before she flew away. Chimes, bells, and buzzers remind me of class endings, friends’ bicycles zooming by, and Family Feud.
Senses are so powerful. Memoir writers do not have to rely on unprompted memory. Use the tools that work for you.
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