The written word rules. Of course, dialogue is important – that’s how we relate to others – but our spoken words sometimes get lost out there.
They seem to vanish into thin air – like a little word imp is grabbing our treasured utterances and hiding them from us, never to be heard again.
But once our expressions are written, that is almost as good as being set in stone.
With our written words, we can explore what happened in the past, what shaped us to become the person we are today.
We can capture what’s happening right now – what we’re working on – and what’s planned for the future.
Pretty cool, especially since we can go back and look when our memories get fuzzy.
Oral stories are awesome – in fact, it’s a wonderful experience to hear the family’s elders talk about what their childhoods were like or what their parents had to overcome just to stay alive.
Inspirational stories like these are told all the time.
However, in our busy modern worlds, we can’t count on those stories being passed on.
But if we write them down, the generations behind us have a better chance of knowing what ground has been taken to give them the amazing lives they have.



Jane Self, PhD, was assistant features editor for the Macon Telegraph and features editor for The Tuscaloosa News. She received her master's degree in secondary education from Louisiana State University in New Orleans and her PhD in education administration from the University of Alabama.
Jane Self was features editor at The Tuscaloosa News when the Fallen Warriors series began. Although she left the paper, she continued to write these profiles on a freelance basis for The News until the series was stopped in May 2009. Jane has since updated and published them as an E-book.
In 1991 "60 Minutes" aired a story that attempted to destroy the life and work of EST founder Werner Erhard. Award-winning journalist Jane Self suspected there was more to these allegations than being reported. She discovered an amazing plot of espionage, conspiracy, and sabotage.