[O]ne thing we all have in common as humans is the need to connect with others and in my case, this need was to unite with my unknown biological family, my kin, my tribe, even if the discovery only led to being able to look into eyes that looked like mine for a minute. I felt this need to connect on a cellular level and … Continue reading On Searching for a Nose, Hearing the N-Word, and Navigating Identity
I am an only child for whom the spoiled and pampered myths are not the full truth given that 40 of my 54 first cousins were mostly older than me, and were as proficient at kicking me in the butt and as they were in taking me by the hand as my behavior or attitude required. And, sure, the 40+ aunts and uncles across three … Continue reading Assignment – A Preface opening paragraph or first section
Write a poem about one extraordinary moment in your life. That was the assignment for the second session of my mid-day Monday writing class. I seldom compose poems, and when I do, what emerges is often about my Evans-Stafford-Svelstad-Alexander family – you know, those people I don’t share blood with but with whom I share soul covenants. And, I’ve shared just one of those poems … Continue reading An extraordinary moment…
…always trip me up, so it’s time for focused freewriting to learn about the sliver of thought irritating my brain. In talking about stories, Dolly Parton said this to a podcaster: [Stories] are my truth. And he added, I believed her and yet wondered what was being left out. Eight years ago, a few months after learning the DNA news that brought Not Parent Expected … Continue reading The tiny words…
I created these slides for the 3 September 2025 session of the of the University of Minnesota Retirees Association’s Family History Group, aiming to share how I figured out the identity of the person I refer to as biodude. The 3 sections of the presentation address Inheriting the Genealogy Bug, Collecting Some New Stories, and Renewing My Sense of Belonging. The day marked that I … Continue reading Who Are These People? A Family History Presentation
So, I made a piece of art, a collage that hangs out alongside an essay as a sort of sound and landscape for what I’ve written – at least in my head that’s how I hold these two pieces together. I intend this little bit of an essay to externalize some of that thinking. Together all of this gets me started on pairing essays with … Continue reading Windfalls of Questions, Stories, Tarot, and Music
Published in Severance Magazine’s NPEs section on 7 April 2025. Revision of Flash Memoir #1. Old stories and new stories are essential: They tell us who we are, and they enable us to survive. We thank all the ancestors, and we thank all those people who keep on telling stories generation after generation, because if you don’t have the stories, you don’t have anything. – … Continue reading 20 Questions and a World of Stories
Dod yn ôl at Fy Nghoed [Returning to my trees] – a Welsh proverb advocating a “return to balanced state of mind” blank line Rhizomatic thinking is an attempt to give a picture for showing how seemingly unconnected things can actually form meaningful connections for us. – Dave Cormier, glossary on rhizomatic learning and curriculum *** *** *** The 2018 Ancestry DNA spit test situating me … Continue reading Flash Memoir #2 (of 5) – Returning to My Trees: Transplanting My Rhizomes
“We help the dead to inhabit death; they help us to inhabit life. We are as much their angels as they are ours.” – Greg Mogenson, Greeting the Angels On 28 August 2024, I began the week’s transition out of the teaching and learning position I started that same day in 2000, then a week after Pops died. At retirement, I found myself walking back … Continue reading Flash Memoir #1 (of 5) – Never forget the hands that raised you
Old stories and new stories are essential: They tell us who we are, and they enable us to survive. We thank all the ancestors, and we thank all those people who keep on telling stories generation after generation, because if you don’t have the stories, you don’t have anything. – Leslie Marmon Silko You likely know the “20 Questions” guessing game process that revolves around … Continue reading Flash Memoir #3 (of 5) – 20 Questions
