A Few Reasons to Share Your Story

This morning I wrote a blog post about facts, and how we sometimes use facts as a way to avoid telling the story we really want to tell. 

Then I stepped away from the computer and thought to myself. What am I really thinking about right now? And what might you want to hear?

I realized I want to talk about something else.

Over the past few days my heart has been heavy.

There has been news another mass shooting in America, a stabbing in Melbourne, and fires in California.

A set of stories closer to my current home in Berlin, Germany hit my heart hard.

I first heard of a wall being built around La Plaine, a park area popular to locals in a diverse harbor neighborhood of Marseille. Then, a few days later two buildings in that same neighborhood collapsed, killing at least eight people.

The EU poured millions of dollars to upgrade the public spaces in that area. They built a popular pedestrian area, one without benches. While the streets and sidewalks were getting a facelift local residents have been living in substandard housing. Current estimates show that over 100,000 renters are living in housing at risk of structural damage.

While this is happening I read about the advances in artificial intelligence and how it will soon bring all the knowledge we need to know to our fingertips.

I wonder.

Would it show us the risks involved with the condition of these buildings?

Would knowing that had changed the way city officials and builders managed these buildings?

In a way, this blog post is about facts.  

It is about the things facts cannot tell us.  

Stories offer spaces for reflection and nuance that straight facts.

Facts need to be interpreted. Stories are spaces for interpretation.

Unfortunately, the stories winning right now position finances over people.

FOR ALL OF YOU, CREATIVES, HERE ARE A FEW REASONS YOUR STORY MATTERS.

You can inspire others.

You can illuminate ideas, struggles, hopes and dreams.

Your process is interesting.

We need each other.

Your questions are important.

Your actions and the intention behind these actions can move others to action.

The act of crafting your story reveals you to yourself, who you are and who you need to become and the becoming is beautiful.

WHO IS SHARING INSPIRING STORIES?

It is easy to get down after reading the news and seeing the problems of the world blaring in headlines day after day.

But then I look to the people who are sharing their stories and doing inspiring work in the world.

I listen to the podcast of Krista Tippit and On Being and Debbra Millman with Design Matters.

Or I discover the political comedy of Hasan Minhaj, Patriot Act, on Netflix.

These are creative people who had a vision and decided to act and tell their own stories. And their stories are inspiring hundreds of thousands of people around the world.

SHARING IN WAYS BIG AND SMALL

Even when the days are hard, you have an opportunity to share and to connect with another person. Maybe you share your story in a conversation at a café. Maybe you share it through an art action on the street. Maybe you share via Instagram, Facebook or YouTube.

Keep sharing, keep connecting, keep growing.

You are beautiful.