Our stories connect us

by DRM

Most men lead lives of quiet des­per­a­tion and go to the grave with the song still in them.
Henry David Thoreau

The enemy of our soul is the expe­ri­ence of anonymity.

Thoreau was mis­guided in his instinct to sep­a­rate him­self from the peo­ple around him and to envi­sion their lives as empty and useless.

The source of des­per­a­tion is not doing the same thing over and over. It is hav­ing our sto­ries torn away from us, the recog­ni­tion of our human­ness rejected and diminished.

When we tell sto­ries, we come alive. The world res­onates and imprints. We get close to each other, wink and gig­gle and sigh and gasp. We ease into the com­mu­nity of peo­ple, know­ing that in a crit­i­cal way the peo­ple around us rec­og­nize us, value us.

Every story fights off the uncer­tainty and fear, the anonymity that leads to that desperation.

So be con­fi­dent when you go out, take your story with you, tell it to the world .