Life story magic

Let's make this project a bit more organized. Also: (762) 250-5433.

Last October, I posed a question: How did you find the love of your life?

More then 60 of you took the time to answer in the comments.

Well, next week is Valentine's Day. (You’re welcome for the reminder.) Leading up to that, I thought I’d do something pretty similar—but with a twist, and a reason, and as a way to start something new.

Photo by freestocks on Unsplash

Quick context: This is part of the Big Plan I've Been Working On(TM) for the last 2 months or so. It basically involves reorganizing this five-year-old newsletter so that it has more predictable sections.

I still plan to send something every day! But, I want it to be easier for me to plan, and for you to read.

I'll explain the sections as we go forward, and nothing is written in stone. If things work, I’ll keep those sections, and if they don’t I’ll try something different.

But maybe the best way is just to jump into one of them. That’s what we’re doing today—a recurring feature that I'm retroactively calling "Life Story Magic."

This is about a passion I've had for a while: Finding ways to help people to share and save their family life stories—quickly and easily, and so that they actually do it.

At the easiest level, it's probably a weekly feature where we prompt you with questions and get people thinking about key memories, and then sharing them—hopefully with family and friends, and also here in the newsletter community.

Oh, and here’s a twist: Wouldn't it be easier if you knew the questions ahead of time?

Also: What if you could add stories in the comments—but you could also call a free number and simply share your answer via a short voicemail?

Would that be interesting? Would people do it? Well, we're going to find out.

Today, I'll give a small preview of our pre-Valentine's Day edition of the newsletter, in which we will talk once more good love stories.

And, we’ll get into it both today and next week by sharing some of the comments from last time that people might have missed, when we asked (once again): “How did you find the love of your life?”.

Key: Whether you shared last time or not, you're invited to do so today—either in the comments, or by calling the new phone number: (762) 250-5433. (Or 762-250-LIFE, if that’s easier to remember.)

I'll highlight more comments next week—and also listen to the voicemails you leave, and try to include some of them as well. (I mean, we’ll see how many we get!)

To whet your appetite, here are a few short excerpts from what people shared last time. I think you'll see why I think this is such a neat idea, and I hope you’ll be inspired.

• "On October 14, 1964 I stood along the wall at a mixer. ... My friend gestured to a young man 90 degrees to our right ... Eager to avoid her any further, he asked me to dance. Eight weeks later, on our 2nd date, he proposed. We’ve been married 57 years."

• "My handyman sent me to Home Depot. Larry worked there. ... He opened with a funny remark and we bantered for about 15 minutes while looking at the shower. When I commented that it looked so small, he asked what I had in mind. I replied, “Would it fit two people”? With a huge smile, he replied, “Let’s find out?” We got in, we fit and I bought the shower. We were married 1 1/2 years later. We were together for 20 before he passed. He was the love of my life."

• “I met my husband in the 4th grade when my parents rented a house for one year in the same neighborhood as my future husband. My family moved across the city and we did not see each other again until the first day of medical school about 15 years later. [We] will be celebrating our 39th anniversary in December.”

• "I met my husband at a bank while I was vacationing in California (from Australia). What I expected to be no more than a fun holiday fling ended up turning into a charming long distance relationship and me ultimately moving to the US. We’ve now been together 12 years and just welcomed our baby boy to the world!"

• "My husband and I met at a friend's party when we were 14. ... We flirted back and forth, but never actually dated, and joked that if neither of us were married by 30, we should try to find each other and settle down. ... We were married at 28, had our first child at 29, and our second at 30. We have been happily married for almost 22 now, and I wouldn't change a thing!”

See? We’re all walking around with great stories. So, I’d love to hear yours.

You can leave comments here, or else … “that number again” as they used to say on late night TV commercials: (762) 250-5433.

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How about a poll?

I now have a list of over 1,000 questions to ask people in order to get them to share their life stories. If this project catches on, as I hope it will, which of the following questions do you think I should be sure to ask?

Let’s do a poll. (The space for each choice in the actual poll “bug” is very small so I’ve got slightly longer versions of them first, then the shorter versions in the poll itself.) What do we think of these kinds of questions?

1. What was your very first job? What did you learn from it?

2. Have you changed your mind about faith or religion over the years?

3. What things did you promise yourself you'd do differently than your parents?

4. Did you ever have a serious health issue? How did you deal with it?

5. What’s one piece of financial advice you’d give your younger self?

Thanks for your suggestions! And, feel free to suggest other questions in the comments — along with (or instead of) your answer to today’s question.

Or else, one more time: Call (762) 250-5433.

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7 other things worth knowing today

• President Trump on Tuesday floated the idea of the U.S. taking over the Gaza Strip. He didn't say what would happen to the nearly 2 million Palestinians who live there and hope to be part of a future Palestinian state. Separately, Trump said he has now given orders that if he is killed by Iran, the United States should "obliterate" that country. (The Hill, AP)

• El Salvadorian President Nayib Bukele offered to accept convicted American criminals including U.S. citizens and permanent residents in the country's brutal 40,000-inmate prisons for a fee. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say it's almost certainly not legal under the 8th Amendment's prohibition on cruel and unusual punishments. (ABC News)

• Another big move: Virtually the entire U.S. Aid for International Development staff was told last night that they are now on administrative leave, with all 60 overseas missions set to close by Friday, and the thousands of U.S. staff members who are currently overseas expected to return home to the U.S. within 30 days. (NPR)

• More than 8,000 web pages across more than a dozen U.S. government websites have been taken down since Friday afternoon, as federal agencies rush to heed President Trump’s orders targeting diversity initiatives and “gender ideology.” The purges have removed information about vaccines, veterans’ care, hate crimes and scientific research, among many other topics. (NY Times)

• A DC judge awarded the Proud Boys’ trademarks to a local church -- Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church, where Frederick Douglass, Oprah Winfrey, and former President Obama have worshipped. The church won a $1 million judgement against the far-right group after attacks during a December 2020 rally. The ruling “clears the way for the church to try to seize any money that the Proud Boys might make by selling merchandise like hats or T-shirts emblazoned with their name or with any of their familiar logos, including a black and yellow laurel wreath,” the New York Times reports. (Washingtonian)

• For the second year in a row, the city of Miami Beach is running a marketing campaign designed to convince spring breakers to go somewhere else. This year's video, which they hope will go viral, depicts actors in a promo for a fake reality show having their spring break ruined by $100 parking fees, $500+ car tow fees, police on the beach banning everything except the "grapes and cheese," coupled with DUI checkpoints, license plate readers, and curfews. (Miami Herald)

• A Stradivarius violin from 1714 could fetch highest price ever for a musical instrument when it goes up for auction Friday: maybe as much as $12 million to $18 million or more. (CBS News)