Your Six Words on Aging Here…

“Six-Word Memoir Project” creator Larry Smith on his ongoing project, and an invitation for readers to add their own six-word memoirs about getting older in the comments. An open thread…

Readers,

I’m turning today’s open thread over to Larry Smith, creator of The Six-Word Memoir Project. I’ve been a fan of the project from its inception, and so when Larry asked about collaborating with Oldster on a post, I thought it could be great fun. Read on for more from Larry about the project’s origins and where it’s taken him in the past decade-plus, as well as an invitation to add your own six-word memoir about any aspect of getting older in the comments. - Sari

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Larry Smith is the co-founder, with Rachel Fershleiser, of The Six-Word Memoir Project and co-writer, with Melanie Abrams, of The Joy of Cannabis: 75 Ways to Amplify Your Life Through the Science and Magic of Cannabis. Check out his Substack, “Say Less.”

“Hotel sex still rocks over 50.”

I was 42 when I heard those words while standing on the stage of a large and well-lit ballroom at the AARP 50+ Convention in Orlando, Florida in 2010. Why had someone in the audience walked to a standing mic, planted her feet on the ground, and made this six-word proclamation to hundreds of strangers who responded with a rousing round of applause? She was answering a question I had just asked the crowd, a question I’ve now been asking people of every age and description for more than fifteen years:

Can you describe your life in six words?

I first posed that question in the form of my first tweet on a new social media platform called Twittr (no “e” back then for the company now called X). People responded in droves to what I guess would have been the first trending tweet. They shared stories of agency (“Wasn’t born a redhead; fixed that”), identity (“Half Jewish, half Italian, totally stuffed”), intensity (“Can’t look at heart donor’s picture”), and humor (“Wedding dress lasted longer than husband”) —and what’s now called The Six-Word Memoir Project was born.

Six-Word Memoirs is a reinvention of the form that, according to literary lore, Ernest Hemingway birthed when he was challenged to write a whole novel in just six words: “For sale: baby shoes, never worn.” Since that first tweet, the Six-Word Memoir Project has taken on a life beyond my wildest expectations. More than fifteen years and two million stories posted on sixwordmemoirs.com later, the six-word format has become a book series and board game, a tool for companies to hone their mission and educators to help their students get “unstuck,” and, above all, a deceptively simple way to unlock self-expression in anyone and everyone.

At its heart, the six-word limitation forces us to figure out the essence of who we are and what matters most. Blank pages and open-ended questions like “What’s your story?” are terrifying for most of us. When we can answer that question with just six words it’s not so scary. And a good six-word story — like any good story —  often sparks the three-word response we all want to hear across the dinner table, on a date, or during a job interview: Tell me more.

By the time I was invited to speak at AARP, I had been with enough groups to know that the real magic of my talk on unlocking our personal stories through the six-word format is when I invite everyone else to do the talking. Whether with third-graders in an English class, Millennials at a company off-site, or hundreds of (what at the time seemed to me to be surprisingly rowdy) AARP members, all are invited to share a Six-Word Memoir about any part of their life in an interactive “Six Word Slam.” That afternoon the AARP 50+ crowd turned a bland Florida ballroom into a space bursting with humor, heart, and inspiration as they shared stories like “Mom’s Alzheimer’s: she forgets, I remember”; “Daily Rx: One good belly laugh”; and “60, single, rich: call me collect.”  (I can assure you, that golden bachelor left with a few numbers.)

Whether your story is just getting started (“Eight years old, story still untold”), in mid-life (“42 and still believe in magic”), or in its sunset (“At 75, inner child is alive”), there’s never a bad time to take a beat and take stock of your life. And it’s not surprising that at times of transition, taking a pause to reflect on a milestone moment produces particularly resonant Six-Word Memoirs such as Tiffany Shlain’s “Dad’s funeral, daughter’s birth, flowers everywhere.”

I’ve read all two million Six-Word Memoirs on my website and heard countless more in ballrooms and classrooms and have found that the most passionate six-word storytellers are teens, whose lives seem to be changing every minute, and older, more seasoned storytellers, who have lived a bit, have more experiences in their vault to mine from, and have a better sense of who they are and what they’ve learned along the way.

Just as the best parts of my talks are hearing the Six-Word Memoirs of others, the best part of this post will be the stories Oldster readers share.

While you are welcome to share any six-word story of your life, I’d love to hear your six words on aging, advice for a life well-lived, or a six-word letter to your younger self. Here are a few more Six-Word Memoirs to give you a sense of the many ways you can think about age in six words. 

• Slow learner, life began at 50. —Margie Gorman

• 60 was old. Then it wasn't. – J.F. Miller

• 70: pedaled bicycle across United States. —Edith Albright

• 50: Rewarding; 60: Relaxing; 70: Yee-Ha!! —Virginia  Overman

• To age gracefully is to age. — Sherry Ainscough

• I’ve lived a very lubricated life.—Jane Fonda (that Jane Fonda!)

And that Six-Word Memoir shared by the wonderfully unfiltered woman at the AARP 50+ conference? Now at 55, I can confirm what 42-year-old me couldn’t, albeit in seven words: hotel sex does still rock over 50.