{"id":116,"date":"2010-01-22T14:24:00","date_gmt":"2010-01-22T14:24:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/thinplaces\/2010\/01\/a-few-more-thoughts-about-god-memoir-and-cultural-narcissism.html"},"modified":"2010-01-22T14:24:00","modified_gmt":"2010-01-22T14:24:00","slug":"a-few-more-thoughts-about-god-memoir-and-cultural-narcissism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/01\/a-few-more-thoughts-about-god-memoir-and-cultural-narcissism.html","title":{"rendered":"A few more thoughts about God, memoir, and cultural narcissism"},"content":{"rendered":"

And now a few more thoughts… The important thing about memoir in general is that it not be simply a chronicle of events, but rather a story telling a larger truth. So, for instance, on the surface, Penelope Ayers<\/a><\/i> is the story of my mother-in-law dying of cancer. Which is a rather mundane experience, and a rather depressing one at that. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n


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But more importantly, and the reason it seemed to me to be worth writing down for a wider audience, Penelope Ayers <\/i>is the story of what happened in her, and what happened in me, as she battled the disease. In the end, it is a story that asks the question: “How do I continue to believe in the goodness and purpose of life in the face of all that is wrong in this world?” Now that is a question worth trying to answer.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

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Similarly, right now I’m working on a second book. This one is also a memoir, and, again, on the surface it is about a young couple who learn that their daughter has Down syndrome. But the more important story-line, the universal one, is of a young couple learning to value every human life as it is given. For the public to read my journals about Penny’s early days of life would be voyeurism. Hopefully, reading a memoir about those days will be a witness to God’s work in our lives and the potential for God to work in similar ways in other lives. <\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

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So yes, confession and redemption are important to making memoir worthwhile. I hope the confession and redemption displayed in my writing is rooted in a deeper spiritual reality, the reality that God actually loves human beings and in the midst of the mess of our lives, continues to work to draw us towards Him. <\/span><\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

And now a few more thoughts… The important thing about memoir in general is that it not be simply a chronicle of events, but rather a story telling a larger truth. So, for instance, on the surface, Penelope Ayers is the story of my mother-in-law dying of cancer. Which is a rather mundane experience, and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":88,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-116","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-down-syndrome"],"yoast_head":"\nA few more thoughts about God, memoir, and cultural narcissism - Thin Places<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/01\/a-few-more-thoughts-about-god-memoir-and-cultural-narcissism.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A few more thoughts about God, memoir, and cultural narcissism - Thin Places\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"And now a few more thoughts… The important thing about memoir in general is that it not be simply a chronicle of events, but rather a story telling a larger truth. 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Which is a rather mundane experience, and…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/01\/a-few-more-thoughts-about-god-memoir-and-cultural-narcissism.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Thin Places\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-01-22T14:24:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"amyjuliabecker\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"A few more thoughts about God, memoir, and cultural narcissism - Thin Places","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/01\/a-few-more-thoughts-about-god-memoir-and-cultural-narcissism.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"A few more thoughts about God, memoir, and cultural narcissism - Thin Places","og_description":"And now a few more thoughts… The important thing about memoir in general is that it not be simply a chronicle of events, but rather a story telling a larger truth. 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Two major life experiences have shaped her writing and her faith\u00e2\u20ac\u201dcaring for her mother-in-law as she battled cancer and welcoming her daughter Penny into the world after she was diagnosed at birth with Down syndrome. Both experiences expanded and enriched her understanding of what it means to be human and to receive each and every person as a gift.\u00c2\u00a0 A graduate of Princeton University and Princeton Theological Seminary, she is the author of Penelope Ayers: A Memoir, and the forthcoming A Good and Perfect Gift (Bethany House). Her essays have appeared in First Things, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Christian Century, ChristianityToday.com, and Bloom, among other online venues.","sameAs":["http:\/\/amyjuliabecker.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/author\/amyjuliabecker"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/88"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}