For the story “Desiderata” by Elizabeth McCracken I found that the main idea type is the central idea. Using the six steps to solve the central idea( observations, examples, expert testimony, facts, anecdotes, analogies) I found that the examples “I come from a family strong on documents” explains McCracken as a genealogist and that my grandmother saved letters from Martha. Both of those describe the family strong on documents. Some facts are “Desiderata” “I learned in library science school,were the items you needed for an archive to make it useful. An archive is a collection of historical documents or records. The fact is giving the definition of the title “ Desiderata”. “Even in the letters from the litigious sisters themselves, this comes