Lögberg-Heimskringla - 01.03.2019, Side 4

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4 • Lögberg-Heimskringla • March 1 2019
Recently, I was invited
to speak to a group
of seniors at Lions
Place in Winnipeg, where I
was asked to advise those
attending about how to write
for publications like Lögberg-
Heimskringla and community
newspapers. I was happy to
oblige but my focus shifted
towards encouraging them to
write for themselves and their
families – for posterity’s sake.
The stories my mother used to
tell are beginning to fade from
my memory and I find myself
forgetting important details, so
I have been feeling a burning
need to write them down along
with my own reminiscences
and reflections. I long ago
arrived at the conclusion that
we don’t necessarily know what
we believe – what we really
believe – until we commit our
words to paper.
I have a collection of
handwritten journals, none of
which extends to more than
a month or two in duration.
Occasionally, I poke my nose
into the pages of one of them
to see what I was thinking at
the time, or what my mood
might have been, but I’ve
never succeeded at the personal
discipline of keeping a journal.
In some ways, sermon-
writing and editorial-writing
have filled the gap that journal-
keeping might have occupied,
although my sermons are more
often than not outlined in note
form, leaving only my editorials
as completed products. But
both sermons and editorials are
public documents and while
they may include intimations
of my private reflections –
indeed, they always do – they
are necessarily cleaned up for
public consumption. As such,
they represent a guarded public
presence, no matter how candid
I strive to be in my preaching
and editorializing. I try to tell
the truth as I see it – but I never
tell the whole truth. That would
be too risky.
Of course, there are my
Facebook posts and my Twitter
feed, but even these are crafted
in a manner that recognizes
people are watching. So the
controversies I invite are
controversies I’m prepared
to endure, the sides I take are
sides I’m prepared to defend,
and the feelings I express are
feelings I’m willing to share.
Now, even that guardedness
didn’t prevent me from being
publicly humiliated when
I stood for parliament, but
that only goes to show that,
no matter how cautious and
careful we may strive to be,
there’s often someone out there
willing to do us in for personal
or partisan gain.
A few years ago, I set
up a folder on my computer
called “Private Reflections”
and within it I have been
adding files containing essays
in which I ruminate on things
in the way I might have done
in a journal. The format was
inspired by Kahlil Gibran’s
book, The Prophet – a thin
tome I once sneered at but
which I grew to love.
Now, I’m neither a prophet
nor as imaginative a writer as
Kahlil Gibran, but his book
offered a template for thinking
about many of the important
questions of human life and
it has served me as a starting
point in my own discernment.
As I recall, I started with about
a dozen essays and the number
grew over time to reach two
dozen. The themes cover the
whole range of life: what I
believe about God, nature,
love, goodness, family, life and
death, truth, faith, hope, beauty,
economics, politics, friendship,
and so on.
By the time I’m done – may
it be a far off day – I may have
combined some of the essays
or added other new ones. Some
essays are less than a page
long while some could end
up growing long enough to
submit as a thesis somewhere.
For now, I keep adding to
what I’ve written, as the spirit
moves me, so this collection
remains very much a work in
progress. I trust that, simply
by writing, I will gain a deeper
sense of the values and beliefs
that have governed my life and
given it meaning.
I also have an
autobiographical essay that
continues to grow, based
on an entirely different set
of questions I’ve distilled
from a couple of good books
on spiritual autobiography.
It is more experiential than
philosophical, dealing with
life as it was lived rather
than thoughts as they were
conceived, recording the
events of my life as best I can
remember them, along with
sketches of some of the people
I have been privileged (or
vexed) to know.
As for my “Private
Reflections,” I may share
them while I’m still around to
be vilified and argued with. I
don’t know. Certainly, some
of the contents will leak out in
other forms, as they have done
already, but some are thoughts
too deep (or maybe just too
personal) to share except with
my most trusted friends.
Stefan’s Saga
Stefan Jonasson
Editor
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GENEALOGY IN
A DIGITAL AGE
Lögberg-Heimskingla is pleased to o er a three-session genealogy
course on how to make the most of your family research,
led by L-H editor Stefan Jonasson.
Session 1: Tracki g Down Your Ancestors
Session 2: Pedigree Charts and he Worldwide Web
Session 3: Developing Your Family Story and Sharing It
At its best, genealogy is about more than names and dates –
it’s about telling the stories of our families and locating ourselves
within them.
ednesdays
April 3, 10, & 17, 2019
7:00 to 9:30 pm
at the Lögberg-Heimskringla o ce
835 Marion Street, Winnipeg, MB
$25 per session (non-subscribers)
$20 per session (subscribers)
*Spots are limited
To register: WWW.LH-INC.CA | (204) 284 5686 | LH@LH-INC.CA
Register today and discover your family story
GENEALOGY IN
A DIGITAL AGE
Lögberg-Heimskingla is pleased to o er a three-session genealogy
course on how to make the most of your family research,
led by L-H editor Stefan Jonasson.
Session 1: Tracking Down Your Ancestors
Session 2: Pedigree Charts and the Worldwide Web
Session 3: Developing Your Family Story and Sharing It
At its best, genealogy is about more than names and dates –
it’s about telling the stories of our families and locating ourselves
within them.
Wednesdays
April 3, 10, & 17, 2019
7:00 to 9:30 pm
at the Lögberg-Heimskringla o ce
835 Marion Street, Winnipeg, MB
$25 per session (non-subscribers)
$20 per session (subscribers)
*Spots are limited
To register: WWW.LH-INC.CA | (204) 284 5686 | LH@LH-INC.CA
Register today and discover your family story
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