Thank you, this was a great story :) I especially connect with it as i'm currently in Warsaw, often visit Toronto and have lived my whole life in Montreal. It's great to be able to visualise the places you're talking about! I love walking around the jewish neighborhood on St-Viateur (they have the best bagels). Very touching story.
Thank you so much Elizabeth. btw, a little background to the story is this. I had heard chess stories all my life, just in passing from various family members and my own experiences. One night it occurred to me that chess could be a theme or metaphor through which I could tell my family's story of immigration. I didn't realize until I was almost done, that the story was really about my father dying when I was a teenager, and in fact, I was telling that story through chess. I think every family has a metaphor of some kind that weaves through the family's life.
Yes, I was about to write that even tho I don't know much about chess, it did not feel like a story about chess. I just didn't know how to put that in words and you just did that perfectly in your response :) So many times I try writing stuff on Hubski but erase it because it doesn't sound right... I'm not too good with words which is probably why my biggest contributions are the photo challenges. I like how you put words into thoughts :)
If it's any comfort to you, I also begin responses a lot and end up deleting or not posting them. It makes thenewgreen unhappy when he hears this. It takes thought and skill to get things into exactly the right words -- and the wrong words are easily misinterpreted. Having said that, these conversations help me clarify ideas that are worth expressing. Once the ideas are clearly expressed they go on to other conversations, writing, lessons, or art forms where they live and breathe anew. There are many reasons to participate in this space - that is one of them. The picture diaries augment and extend the words. The trip reports take us all to new places. I'd love to see a trip report from Warsaw, particularly Twarda Street which runs diagonally through it. I think my family lived near here. "It is the only Warsaw synagogue situated on the left bank of the Vistula river that survived World War II." mk Where is your family from exactly?
I don't know, and I should. Three of my grandparents are Polish (the fourth is Finnish/Italian). I recall hearing that my paternal grandfather's family was from near Krakow, but I might be mistaken. I am going to find out. I'll let you know. I have never been to Poland. It is on my short list.mk Where is your family from exactly?
String together all the corrections you've been subject to . . . and therein lies a tale. In addition to an image or metaphor - chess, grammar - there is also, often, a story that is told over and over again, a story that has lodged itself in the family mythology, a story that holds within it a family's values or driving force. These are the stories I try to pry out in workshops called: "Writing Family Stories." I think this story here is probably my family's central myth, at least of my generation. I'd love to hear more stories of family myths.