4/1/2000
By Bob Greene and D.C. Fulford
The authors of the best-selling "To Our Children's Children" tell how to give your family the greatest gift: your story.
Remember the time your friend gave you a leather-bound journal for a special occasion? You always said you liked to write. Always meant to keep a journal. So your friend gave you a fancy one, with thick manila pages and your initials on the cover in gold. This beautiful gift — this empty, silent book — scared you half to death. Thick pages between leather covers deserve eloquent words, don't they? The dark, cartoonish figure of your self-doubts is on one shoulder; the light, cartoonish figure of your hopes and wishes is on the other.
Your hopeful self says: "Write!"