Writing Spiritual Memoirs

Writing Spiritual Memoirs

Instructor: Dan Wakefield
Date: 6 Tuesdays: Sept. 10, 17, 24; Oct. 1, 8, 15
Time: 7:00 - 9:00 p.m.
Location: Marian University, Clare Hall/Room# 130
Cost: $228 non-members, $156 members, $132 student/teacher/senior members

“Miracles. . .seem to me to rest not so much upon faces or voices or healing power coming suddenly near to us from afar off, but upon our perception being made finer, so that for a moment our eyes can see and our ears can hear what is there about us always.” - Willa Cather, Death Comes for The Archbishop

This course will use exercises in drawing, writing, and memory to evoke meaningful events from our past, and to see them through a lens of spirituality. We use “spirituality” in the broadest terms, based on the Oxford English Dictionary definition of “Spirit. . .the animating principle in [humans] and animals; that which gives life to the physical organism, in contrast to its purely material elements; the breath of life.” The idea of “Spirit” might also be evoked by the line of the poet Dylan Thomas: “The force that through the green fuse drives the flower/ drives my green age.”

The leader will provide excerpts from a variety of spiritual memoirs from different faiths to be discussed, including The Seven Storey Mountain, by Thomas Merton; Nine-Headed Dragon River, by Peter Matthiessen; My Guru and His Disciple, by Christopher Isherwood; Night, by Elie Wiesel; and Lit, by Mary Karr. (No need to read the books, unless you are so moved; we will only discuss the excerpts provided.)

Affirmation rather than criticism is offered for the writing. Followers of any or no religious faith are welcome to participate; all paths are honored.