When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things. Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely. Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.

1 Corinthians 13:11-13

Greetings, friends, from a seriously chilly North Carolina. It’s Thursday morning and I am looking forward to one of those rare days when I can concentrate on some serious writing for several uninterrupted hours. That’s right, one of the promised new books is beginning to move from the conceptual to the actual. I have 15 pages and, possibly, a little bit of – kind of maybe – a vague sense of, almost, direction.

What I would like to do now is to ask for your help.

I have always believed that good reading leads to better writing, and I am currently finishing off Tobias Wolff’s acclaimed memoir, This Boy’s Life. What are some of your favorites, specifically in the realm of memoir? What have you read, recently, that floats your boat and goes a step or two beyond merely entertaining?

Storytelling, I am continually discovering, tends to facilitate memory. Yesterday I was writing about the psychologist my parents took me to see in response to “issues” I had that affected grade school. I started with very few clear details, but then more and more began to emerge, coming into focus in response to the exploration. It is like stepping into a dark room, blinking at the shadows, sitting in one of the overstuffed chairs and beginning to nod in recognition at the details as my eyes gradually adjust to the light.

For now we see through a glass, darkly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; but then shall I know, even as also I am known. (KJV)

I like that image. It reminds me of what a lot of guys tell me in response to becoming part of a men’s ministry initiative that values sharing our own stories. Hearing themselves talk more honestly about their own joys, struggles, doubts, questions, faith, hopes and dreams; beginning to nod in recognition at the details as their eyes gradually adjust to the light.

Open Book:

I have been an open book for quite some time. Yet I am curious with a sense of anticipation at what I will uncover in this particular exploration, what clarity will emerge out of the fog of time and distance and imperfect memory.

Of course I am not sure, at the moment, precisely what story I am going to tell; I tend to find out along the way. Hopefully I will follow the clues, the insights, the trail of breadcrumbs, faithfully. I don’t want to blatantly avoid the uncomfortable, to sanitize my life, or to make anything read like an “I chopped down the cherry tree” publicity piece for an election campaign. But I do want to tell truth in the context of grace, and love, and promise, and possibility, and redemption.

So, again, what are some of the memoirs that have touched you and inspired you and spoken something true to your soul?

I have to remember the line I always used on interviewees, back when I wrote profiles of “local personalities” for The Tampa Tribune. “I promise you that newspaper readers will be interested. Everyone has a compelling story. It’s just that somebody has to ask the right questions.”

Call to me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known.

Jeremiah 33:3