Six Magic Words

Okay, so last summer I heard about the Six-Word Memoir thing-a-ma-jig. Do you know about it? Supposedly, one or more of my memoirs will be in the next book, but I don't really know much about it yet. More on that later. Anyway, the assignment is to encompass your whole life into a single six-word memoir. I dare you to try it.

Never one to shrink from a challenge, I pondered which six words would embody the whole of my life and scribbled them down with gusto. At least I thought so. It all started with this:

Slow to bud, but awesome blossom.

Okay. That actually depicts my earlier life, but not the whole of it. So I gave it another try:

Third time's not a charm -- damn.

Says a lot about me -- but really doesn't get me all the way there. So I put my sassy, but temperamental, writer's muse to work, and she came up with:

Shhh, not now. Mama's writing smut.

Seemed to encompass my writing life perfectly, but there was a whole other side of me that wasn't tapped. Wait, I thought, I've got it!

Rebel mama, different drummer, humor me.

Cryptic? Maybe, but anyone who knows me will understand it and agree that's me to a tee. I could have stopped there, but I didn't. Oh no, because I'm . . .

Still waiting for the big adventure.

But adventure is nothing without love, right? It's what I dream of, extraordinary love. A full lifetime of it, ending with two empty rocking chairs side by side. Followed by this scene: and all the younguns doing the cooking and cleaning while Old Fart and Old Fartesse get it on down by the river on the roll-up egg crates. Ah, sweet romance:

Endless love calls, hear me now?

Old Fartesse: Louder, sugar dumplin'. You wanna take me where?
Old Fart: To the Big Island. Kamonawannalaya.

By then I realized I had accumulated many six-word memoirs, which meant I had blown the exercise! I hadn't narrowed my life down to six words and only six words. I was six times six and counting! And still the challenge stared me in the face. Being the daughter of the master improvisor, Mr. Bill, I decided to take one word from each memoir, and that should encompass my whole, freakin' life! Right? Let's see if this fits:

Awesome charm, smut humor, adventure calls.

Heh, heh. I'm digging that awesome charm part -- of course it's true. Smut humor? Uh, well, yeah. And then there's my unrequited dream of seeing the world. Yup, I've done it! I have fit myself into six words.

I am feeling a little squished.
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