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As I watch my mates get older and enter new phases of life, I’ve observed a typical thread: 12 months after yr, many people occur upon questions we want we’d requested the family members who’re now not with us. A few of these questions are capacious: What sort of pal had been they of their youth? Others give attention to the on a regular basis: What was the one music they couldn’t reside with out? And what, precisely, was that well-known chocolate-cake recipe?
It’s not life like, after all, to ask each single query whereas we will. However typically our family members want a nudge to share a bit greater than they could’ve in any other case: “It’s possible you’ll be shocked by how a lot your dad and mom and grandparents haven’t informed you, maybe as a result of they thought you wouldn’t have an interest, or they weren’t certain the way you’d choose them,” Elizabeth Keating wrote in 2022. Opening that door can result in perception you by no means knew existed.
On Oral Historical past
The Questions We Don’t Ask Our Households however Ought to
By Elizabeth Keating
Many individuals don’t know very a lot about their older family members. But when we don’t ask, we threat by no means realizing our personal historical past.
The Underestimated Reliability of Oral Histories
By Stephen E. Nash and Sapiens
Not solely written narratives have stood the check of time.
What Unusual Household Photographs Educate Us About Ourselves
By Syreeta McFadden
A brand new e book honors unsung figures who’ve for generations captured essentially the most delicate moments of Black life. (From 2023)
Nonetheless Curious?
Different Diversions
P.S.
I not too long ago requested readers to share a photograph of one thing that sparks their sense of awe on this planet. Antoine A., 28, from Versailles, France, despatched a photograph of Solalex, “a small hamlet in Switzerland, on the foot of the Diablerets mountains.”
I’ll proceed to characteristic your responses within the coming weeks. In the event you’d wish to share, reply to this e mail with a photograph and a brief description so we will share your surprise with fellow readers in a future version of this article or on our web site. Please embrace your title (initials are okay), age, and placement. By doing so, you agree that The Atlantic has permission to publish your picture and publicly attribute the response to you, together with your first title and final preliminary, age, and/or location that you simply share together with your submission.
— Isabel
