people. She answers, “Some of the
best stories we get are from ordi-nary
people who are experiencing
something extraordinary.” You
can use any of these Wright State
University prompts to help you get
started:
• What did you do today?
How was that different than what
you would do on a normal day?
• What changes have you
personally experienced (physically,
mentally, and/or emotionally since
this crisis began?
• What has been the most
difficult thing for you personally
about this crisis? Do you think
there's anything positive that may
come from what's happening?
“Use the prompts or just write
what you want. Don't worry about
grammar or punctuation. Speak
from the heart,” Ms Dewey says.
Or, you could tell your story
orally. ‘Voices from the Pandemic’
is a Washington Post collection of
ongoing series of people's personal
stories about the Covid-19 crisis.
“Stories matter more than ever.”
“Accounts of eyewitnesses help
the rest of us understand what is
happening to our world.” “Urgent,
intimate and heartfelt, these oral
histories are a record of this crisis
that tells us with unsparing honesty:
This is what is happening; this is
how it feels.”
An entry of mine would look
this this: I worried today about my
heart health because my father died
young of a heart attack. I want to
follow Dean Ornish’s lifestyle to
prevent heart disease. On some
days I feel I've succeeded. On
others, I'm fighting a sweet tooth,
and not very well. I hallucinated
before, sure that I saw a slice of hot
home-made apple pie on the table.
I've enjoyed the challenge of writ-ing
this story, a labor of love. It's a
lot of work to gather information
and even harder to organize my
thoughts. I'm looking at a huge
pile of notes on my desk. But hey, I
learned from Doris Kearns Goodwin
that Abraham Lincoln wrote the
Gettysburg Address this way too!
It's a labor of love. I always hope
I'm reaching the reader, touching
on things of interest. It gives me a
purpose, to learn and then share
the best of what I’ve read. My next
staying in goal is to organize my
things, my shelves. I get a shot of
dopamine seeing it clear. Gretchen
Rubin, happiness guru, has a book
on decluttering. It clears your head,
she says.
That's some of my journal think-ing,
the 2020 Pandemic raging,
the world shut down. Do it for
yourself. Do it for your legacy.
And, share some jottings with us.
Remember Carl Rogers: “What is
most personal is most universal.”
There's a worldwide comradery,
“We’re all in this together” being
streamed all over the world.
We would love to hear your
‘jottings,’ your experience here.
You may even find it healing,
soothing, to learn you are not the
only one. You may even get an
uplifting idea. And maybe one day
someone's grandchild will pick it
up at a yard sale at some future
time and say, “Hey look! Here's a
notebook of someone who was in
the Coronavirus pandemic,” Ruth
Franklin ends her story. “Maybe
it'll be mine or yours,” I add.
Be well. Be safe, all. ~ Florence
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