washwords

I came across this fascinating blog/concept today: x365 . The idea, like most great ones, is elegant in its simplicity: write about a person who has touched your life in ways big or small, every day for a year. Because the founder of this idea, Dan Waber, was so inspired on his 40th birthday, he decided to add a further caveat: each day’s description of a person who’d touched his life would be 40 words long.

I am “only” 35, so I’ll be cutting a few words. I’m also not sure I won’t write a few posts a day and then none on a different day, but I’m committed to the concept. So… here goes…. Find my 35*365 here.

And find Dan’s original 40*365 and the many many people who are doing it, too, go to x365 or read his excerpt below… You may want to try it yourself! Keep Dan (and me!) posted if you do!

Dan Waber turned 40 on January 12th, 2006, and wanted to mark the occasion in some positive fashion. So he got this crazy idea (not an unusual event) to write 40 words (no more, no less) every day for a year, and each day he’d write about a different person (in no particular order) who touched his life. But not just anyone, it has to be someone he’s actually met in person, someone whose name he still remembers.

Because Dan often thinks up great ideas for things that turn out to be impossible (that darned reality!), the first thing he did was attempt to make a list of 365 people whose names he remembered and who were interesting to him.

The first 50 or so came lickety-split, easy-peasy. The second 50 were not too tough. After that, it got really tough, really fast. When he got to 200 he honestly thought this was going to be impossible. When he got to 300 he was pretty much certain it was impossible and thought he was going to need to relent on the restriction that he had to remember their name.

Then he began writing. 40 words is a tiny lens to look through. How does someone put a mother, an ex-wife, a best friend, or the love of your life into 40 words when that’s not even enough for the junior high math teacher, or guy who sold you your morning paper?

Magically, folks are doing it – all over the world . They’re creating glimpses of people (some fondly remembered, some not) who’ve made up their lives, and generously sharing them.

And in doing so, are celebrating their pasts and enriching their present. Really. Try it. Your life will be happier.