Shots Fired! Wild Horses to the Rescue!

This is the fifth in a series of posts that offer a caricature of the seven combatants that grew up on Peary Street. These brief sketches also point to the third guideline of symmentropy, the way people respond to what we say is rarely what we expect.

Third rule of nonlinear storytelling

Storytelling rarely produces the outcome we expect.

It could have been the first time in over 20 years that the seven children of Peary Street were in the same room at the same time. It could have been a time of warm greetings. It could have been a moment of shared grief. It could have been a lot things, a whole range of possibilities, but it turned into a meeting of a board of directors planning hostile takeovers.
Story Chip

Because I had not seen most of my siblings in over 20 years, my expectations were limited to getting to know who these people had become and giving them a chance to know me. I hoped that we would spend some time filling in the blanks. I hoped that we would share our stories and look to a future without our father. I hoped that the family I left behind had found a way to overcome their anger and resentments. I hoped that my brothers and sisters had some idea how important they were to the hurricane. Things could have turned out better. The first words made it clear that personal animosity still ruled Peary Street.

The Little Kids: Are These Really Brothers?

This is the fourth in a series of posts that offer a caricature of the seven combatants that grew up on Peary Street. These brief sketches also point to the third guideline of symmentropy, the way people respond to what we say is rarely what we expect.

Third rule of nonlinear storytelling

Storytelling rarely produces the outcome we expect.

Many Xers seem nostalgic for the serene ‘50s childhood that they never had and they have been pretty focused on creating a solid home life for their children, whether it’s from re-creating the idyllic family-oriented tableaux depicted in an Ikea catalog or jarring their own preserves. Making things “from scratch” – stepping away from the marketplace — is the new status symbol. Domestic success for the college-educated Xer is gauged by how many processed food packages you have in your pantry. Neil Howe describes a recent survey in which a sample group of Xers were asked to pick their model mother. Among many options, they chose June Cleaver.
- Sara Scribner, Salon.com

In building the caricatures of the the five older siblings, the fragrance of the turmoil of the 60's perfumes each image. The last two lives formed on Peary Street sniffed the cauldron of the civil rights, sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll, rejected the aroma, covered the windows and rolled in the self-indulgence of the generation X fascination with mirrors. The last of the little kids, the brothers, felt the influence of a very different Peary Street far more than politics. The stories they collected featured them in a “Big Kids” role to their nieces and nephews, 2 of whom are closer in age than any of their older siblings. The brothers know and identify with the problems of the Peary Street grandchildren far better than the lives of their brothers and sisters. To me, the 60's were about a global decision to share the planet with each other and that spirit helped allow our parents to make the transition to grandparents far more gracefully than their entry into parenthood.