This idea is directed to you, the present reader, and future
reader and writer, for your friends, family and even coming
generations. It is called "Memory Forever."
All you have to do is write. This is not an assignment for
school or a transcription of your daily experiences in a
diary. This is a memory that you enjoy writing and want to
write for your own benefit and for that of others. When you
have the time, urge and energy, and this does occasionally
happen, just take a pen and paper, or better, a notebook.
Start off with the date and then WRITE!
Whatever you fancy.
You might wish to record a difficult experience and how you
handled it, while it is still fresh in mind, with the lessons
it provided. This "Memory Forever" will help you face a
similar situation in the future. It may provide a tool for a
friend or relative or even a member of some future
generation.
You may wish to record something exciting and personally
decisive or historic. If you get your facts down right and
describe the emotions as you felt them at the time, the event
can be recaptured at will.
Or write about the mundane, "What I did today." Maybe an
insight that struck you, a lesson you learned (the easy or
hard way). Each day is a new world. Recalling how you lived
it may help you to proceed through your `mundane' life in a
more meaningful way with hindsight up front!
Write your `memory' and then read it over. You will realize
where you are holding in life, what you've accomplished, what
you may wish and be able to refine. In a few days, weeks or
even years from now, turn the pages back and pick yourself a
Memory Forever, perhaps at random, or one you'd like to
recall and reminisce. Compare yourself then with the You of
today.
The "Memory Forever" project is a very Jewish one; we are
constantly trying to improve our characters, traits, deeds.
We all grow from our constant attempts at overcoming our
yetzer horo through the sage, learned and good advice
we hear all around us. Maybe our techniques can be repeated
for future success, or teach others who will read our
memories. This record may even help our very children, by
letting them see how we struggled, by appreciating our
particular trials.
IDEAS FOR PRESERVATION: * a box with individual dated papers
* a looseleaf with dividers for months or years * a dated
diary * also invaluable are tapes of yourself or your family,
talking, telling
How about doing this for an elderly member of the family --
recording their past experiences in a rapidly changing world,
before these memories are lost forever. Telling about the
family...
What really started this idea was a poem, written by R'
GAVRIEL KLATZKO, who passed away suddenly, this year, at the
age of 28, very active at the time in Kiruv work and the
father of several children. He prophetically wrote this very
meaningful poem, which we bring here with his sister's
permission.
HOW TO LIVE
Time starts to slip away,
Do we wait until the day
Or prepare ourselves in advance,
Shaping our lives, leaving nothing to chance?
Will our reflection leave us in shock?
Will we be confident to really take stock?
Will our lives go on, the same as before?
Or will we grow and strive for more?
Let us not wait for time to run out,
Rather, let us start thinking what life is about.
Let us grow, let us move, let us learn how to give,
Greatest of all, let us learn how to live.
