Becoming a “Wisdom Keeper”

Today I attended at writing conference at Brookdale Community College in Lincroft, New Jersey. I always enjoy getting to as many of these as I can afford, not necessarily because I expect to learn some new writing secrets, but mostly to fraternize with other writers. Networking is often the best part of any conference.

During this conference, I attended a journalism and magazine writing seminar led by Harvey Arden. His bio told me he had been a writer for National Geographic for more than 20 years and I fully expected to hear some of the usual instructions about organizing a non-fiction magazine article, and maybe a bit about the inner workings of getting published – things such as studying a magazine before querying, and being sure to spell the editor’s name right.

Instead of this typical workshop scenario, the group was instead treated to the details of what Arden has been doing since leaving National Geographic, and the books that have come out of it.

In short, Arden has been documenting the words of what he has dubbed as “Wisdom Keepers,” specifically, the elders of indigenous people, such as America’s Lakota Indians. His passionate belief in the importance of preserving this information, and how it transcends trends in publishing and political climates was inspiring. He was very aware of the passing of time, and the damage time causes. “They are dropping like leaves from a tree,” he said of the tradition-bearers he has written about. I wondered if he realized that he, himself, was functioning as a “Wisdom Keeper” to those of us in his session. You can read more about this at his webpage at http://www.dreamkeepers.net/3765/3873/4029/


Particularly compelling was the way this drew out stories from some of those in attendance. Marc Bonagura, also a conference presenter and the son of a soldier who fought at Guadalcanal, shared his recent project to honor his father’s experience (an experience he never really spoke about) by interviewing and documenting the stories of other soldiers who fought in the same bloody battle. You can read about this at his webpage; www.thetigerisdead.com One of the points he made so poignantly was how most of these soldiers have never told their stories; they have borne the memories through long silent lives; when all along they could have been passing on their wisdom to the next generation.

We also listened intently to a woman who spoke with a German accent, as she detailed her own story of growing up in Germany during the Nazi years. She spoke of how her father, jobless for 4 years, finally relented and signed up for the Nazi Party, even though he despised the idea. He had a family to feed. She sighed sadly and admitted that she fears for a world that didn’t seem to learn much from those years. She admitted it had taken her all these years to finally speak about her personal experiences, and she was finally writing it down to pass to her grandchildren, so they might learn from it.

So, instead of an outlined how-to presentation of textbook non-fiction writing points, we came away with insight into what it means to tell a true-life story, and how important it is for the journalist or nonfiction writer to strive to document and preserve those things that he or she feel passionate about. And for me especially, it drove home the point that as we age, we have a moral obligation to strive to become the “Wisdom Keepers” for those who follow us.