QUIDDITY

(cross posted onto savingallmybestlines.blogspot.com)

A lot, maybe a majority, of people dismiss the importance of saying – out loud, in writing – our personal stories.   Stories can be seen as symptoms of self-absorption, indicative of narcissism, dull prattlings of people with too high a regard for themselves & too little of matter to keep themselves occupied.

Such folk miss the importance of personal stories, ours & others.  A wise woman wrote that celebrating life stories, big & small, important & apparently inconsequential, provide a “strategy for learning.”  By taking the time to look back on who we were, on what we did, on the impact of others on us, of the things we knew for sure that turned out to be way different than what we thought – by doing that, we help get a bead on who & where we are, maybe get a hint of where we might be going. 

How can we know who we are if we don’t honor what we’ve been?  How can we know where we’re headed without giving at least giving a tip of the hat to the tracks we left behind? 

Learned a new word this past fall – quiddity. 

According to Merriam-Webster, quiddity is a noun meaning “whatever makes something the type that it is; essence.”  Strangely, the same source includes another meaning - a trifling point. 

Interesting.  

So many people find life stories to be mere trifles.  They tend to chalk up folks like me, who find that such stories cup in their metaphysical hands whatever it is that makes us who we are, as eccentrics.

Quiddity - essence.  The gist of who we are.  That could be why working with stories - naturally, without any sense of forcing – can make it easier to interact with olders, especially olders struggling with the delicate balance between what they remember & who they were with what they forget & how they've unraveled.  

Words – once partners in expressing thoughts – turn against them.  They can’t remember the right word or they seem to pluck ones out of the air, whether they apply or not.  

Ah, but things of essence are beyond words.  They simple ARE.  Things of essence conjure images in the mind & heart that need no words, would be hemmed in & caged  by words.   

Maybe those who seem to find my passion for honoring, sharing, recording life stories to be a trifle, not worth significant time or effort, miss the essential point, which true for young & old, robust or frail, sharp-as-a-tack or forgetful ~ stories anchor who we are, help us find ease with who we are becoming, help us find peace with who we were.  

They conjure up, reflect & shine a light on our quiddity.