This is the opening line of a story penned by the great Ernest Hemingway. Incidentally, it is also the closing line. In fact, it is the only line because Hemingway once bragged that he could write a story in six words, and those six are what came of it.

Interesting what one can capture with six words.

It makes me wonder, if one was trying to write a story about another person using only six words, what would he choose to capture? Recently, I had an assignment on a survey to “describe yourself in a word or two,” and I realized that it’s quite difficult because I don’t really know what my defining qualities are. No one does, really, because none of us ever know what other people see in us or remember us by.

If someone were writing a six-word story on you, what would it say? Would it be a story you’d want people to read? If you came up with six words communicating the admirable qualities of another person, don’t you think he or she would be strengthened to read them?

A lot depends on six words.