“Wild Thymes” Is Not My Memoir

“Some say our national pastime is baseball. Not me. It’s gossip”
-Erma Bombeck

“Comedy is just a funny way of being serious.”
-Peter Ustinov

In WILD THYMES I attempt to skate the middle.

The definition of a memoir is “a written account of one’s memory of certain events or people.” It does not necessarily mean factually correct. Therefore, I want to be clear. Wild Thymes is not my memoir. As the events happened I took copious notes which were and remain factually correct. Possibly they’ve been enthusiastically embellished to one degree or another over time but the stories are all factually correct.

Some might argue these stories are a memoir but I see a subtle difference between one’s actual memoirs and one’s telling of stories.

One potential editor I scheduled an hour conference with encouraged me to “forget these stories and write your ‘real’ Memoir.”  He offered a very flattering reason for doing so “because Sally, your life is the personification of the American Dream. Your story will serve as your legacy, a gift to those who might learn from it.”  With those few words he graciously accepted my check for $500 and said he looked forward to reading my first outline.

Damn!  I’d never considered that my life could be the “personification the American Dream.”  On the drive home I wondered if that Corvette who just cut me off realized he’d just pissed off the American Dream?

That evening, in front of a roaring fire with a glass of lovely chilled Pinot Grigio I told my partner the news. I could see him try not to laugh. He was a very sensitive guy.  Instead he simply asked me the key question the Editor had completely ignored. “Is that the story you want to tell, or the one he wants you to tell?”

No, of course it wasn’t at all the story I want to tell. Just yet, at least.

I was reminded of the recent interview I had read with Jonathan Franzen on the Gotham website in which this best selling author states simply “the solution about what to write is always to find my way back to love, to desire, to pleasure.”

Over the years sharing my stories with friends and hearing them laugh has given me the utmost pleasure. I want my readers to have a good time. My goal is to lighten their daily burdens of loss, raising healthy, happy families, working tough long hours to pay for the rising cost of living and health care…..

I believe laughter is the best form of holistic medicine.

Perhaps I’m selfish but my fondest desire is just to amuse. It gives me enormous pleasure, I love it and it’s what I hope will be my legacy.