cultivating bridges

This Fulani and his camel have a story to tell.

How many stories have you heard today?  How many this week?  Did you lose count?  Everything these days seems to be filled to the brim with stories.  Some of these stories are direct narratives, and others are non-linear snapshots.  A collage of people, emotions, senses, and moments.  We persuade through stories, as evidenced in this PsyBlog (thank you to Christopher Allen for sharing).

When we tell with numbers or other forms of data, even if we make the data talk, people rarely experience a deep response.  A story creates a point of reference, either through a sympathetic character or setting or through something or someone completely foreign but deeply interesting.  Stories embody that which makes life worth living.

So, what do stories have to do with creating compassionate communities or building bridges to rich diversity?  Everything.  Who are the people you pass in your everyday comings and goings?  Who are your neighbors?  What do they expect from you and from each other?  A stronger fabric of stories leads to a stronger community, for we cannot feel empathy about that which we do not see and do not understand.

I am currently reading a book, The Laws of Simplicity, by John Maeda.  Stories can be simple or complex, and often we desire both.  A complex story appeals to our desire for something to chew on, something to stir up the pot and stimulate our nerve endings.  A simple story with a powerful message, however, is equally good as a stimulant.

In this TED talk about the ideas in the book, John Maeda weaves a kind of meta-narrative.  Very little in our lives these days is simple, yet the simple stuff provides much joy.

Nicholoas Kristof announced his Win-A-Trip 2012 contest this past week, an opportunity this year open to students only to travel with him for ten days to two weeks and blog with both written and video content.  He describes what he’s looking for in fairly vague terms:

So what kind of a person am I looking for? The truth is, I’m not entirely sure – except that I want someone with excellent communication skills, who can blog and vlog (video blog) in ways that will capture the interest of other readers. If you’ve done blogging, vlogging or journalism, be sure to mention that — in sparkling prose! Ditto for anything else that makes you special or will make your voice more memorable.

While I am not sure if I will apply yet, the concept is intriguing and, as Kristof says, one need not win this contest to have this type of trip.  I’ve already experienced the “on the ground” part, but I only documented my Niger journey the “old-fashioned way,” with pen and paper and a camera — no instant sharing.  My sharing happened monthly, or perhaps even less frequently than that, given the slow internet connections and other uploading challenges.  The deeper sharing happened (and continues to happen) upon my return.

Touching stories about life, tales that make us laugh and cry, are everywhere — not just overseas.  We are all a collection of stories, a human anthology, and those who understand the stories that are not their own, those who take these stories to others to paint a holistic image of what it means to be alive in this century, these are the bridge builders for tomorrow.

My term in Bainbridge Graduate Institute’s Using the Social Web for Social Change class is coming to an end (one more post left for me to write), but this blog will continue in a second iteration and beyond.  As this first iteration closes, I have a few questions for my readers:

What  was your favorite post thus far?

What topics would you like to see me address in the coming months?

How can I better connect to you, the reader?

Happy December, happy story telling. Remember, you do not need to travel to have a trip.