Have you ever read a book that you so totally agreed with you that if felt as thought the author had somehow gotten into your head and wrote down your thoughts? One of those books that you talk back to — in a positive way.

The book that has my rapt attention right now is Radical Homemakers by Shannon Hayes. It is a smart, well researched book and it is a pleasure to read. This is what John de Graaf, coauthor of Affluenza has to say about it:

“Imagine women with masters degrees and PhDs who choose home over career advancement. Imagine wives (and husbands) who reject the false promise of endless paid labor to tend gardens and children and friendships. In a time when Wall Street MBAs-producing nothing of value but rewarded with million-dollar bonuses and blinded by greed-have driven our country to bankruptcy and despair, Shannon Hayes’ stories of women and men who choose simplicity, authenticity and community inspire hope. Outside the boxes of both conservatives and liberals, this book is radical thinking at its best. Read it and think.”

This is what we used to call “dropping out” in the 60′s. Just say no to corporate America and follow your heart to the simple life.  There are many of us that have done just that in small and quiet ways. Maybe not by raising and slaughtering our own goats but by choosing time over money and doing without rather than earning big bucks to buy what we think we need. Many of us are artists in various media, many live quite comfortably even though below the official “poverty level”. We don’t need 5-star hotels to have a great vacation; give us a little camper trailer and we think we are living in luxury!

Hayes says that Radical Homemakers “are learning how to create lives that honor social justice, ecological sustainability, personal creativity, true freedom and the joy of family and community.”

The story of my life includes radical homemaking and now finally someone has written a book about it. What’s the book that tells the story of your life?

The canvas floorcloth was named Rhyme or Reason and the description said:

I actually do not think about “stories” when making my art. I do tell small stories in the newsletter but they are just background for the newsletter itself.

I suppose that behind my creative process there lies a story . . . not in a traditional sense of story, but there is a narrative there. I will call the “story” a monologue – just my brain talking to my hands.

The monologue goes something like this:   I want my art to “talk” to the viewer, so instead of words I will use color and pattern and infuse it with energy and some wit, and top it off with some balance and interest.  I will keep working on a piece until I get there.

So, what do I want to say today?  I am in a mood to use lots of red paint so I will

cover my canvas with it. Then I can go back and use contrasting colors, and play with the shapes that I love, circles and squares, and dots and dashes, and streaks of color, and more again of the same. I will not spend too much time wondering how I got to the end, I will just keep at it until this piece speaks to me and says, “NO MORE!”

That is the narrative I use to keep at a piece. It is the story of my inner engine. If there is more to the story, it is provided by the viewer.

Oral history is the recording, preservation and interpretation of historical information, based on the personal experiences and opinions of the speaker according to wikipedia. In other words telling and keeping stories.

Here is a very brief survey of some online info:

The Oral History Association was founded in 1966 to “bring together all persons interested in oral history as a way of collecting and interpreting human memories to foster knowledge and human dignity”. They offer a social networking space, resources and guides, a network for scholars and a number of publications.

The Oral History Archives Project at the Urban School of San Francisco is called Telling Their Stories.  You can “read, watch and listen to student interviews of elders who witnessed key historic events of the 20th century” at their website. They’ve interviewed Holocaust survivors,  Japanese American internees,  a witness to the Rwandan genocide and veterans of the civil rights struggle, in this “ongoing, ever-changing, and constantly evolving project involving dozens of students, teachers, and community volunteers”.

At DoHistory, a website “designed to show you how to piece together the past from the fragments that have survived” you can find a step-by-step guide to oral history that begins:

We all have stories to tell, stories we have lived from the inside out. We give our experiences an order. We organize the memories of our lives into stories.

Oral history listens to these stories. Oral history is the systematic collection of living people’s testimony about their own experiences. Historians have finally recognized that the everyday memories of everyday people, not just the rich and famous, have historical importance. If we do not collect and preserve those memories, those stories, then one day they will disappear forever.

And at History Matters they ask “What is Oral History”

“Oral History” is a maddeningly imprecise term: it is used to refer to formal, rehearsed accounts of the past presented by culturally sanctioned tradition-bearers; to informal conversations about “the old days” among family members, neighbors, or coworkers; to printed compilations of stories told about past times and present experiences; and to recorded interviews with individuals deemed to have an important story to tell.

Go ahead. Google “oral history” and see what you can find.