I was walking when the magic started happening, and instantly I felt the urge to run back home, and write this hopeletter as soon as possible, to not lose the power and humanity I experienced. This time the magician was Dave Isay with his ted talk.

It’s about stories, about listening and somehow changing the world (this topic will come out quite often in these conversations, I can’t help it).

Dave is leading a beautiful project called StoryCorps.

It all began with him making interviews for his radio, then creating boxes around USA that were meant to hold a table, to talkers and a mediator between them, and now an app.

This gave to people an excuse to talk to each other, ask questions they were really looking an answer for, and to listen.

And all these stories are gathered on a huge drive somewhere in USA, and are reachable by everyone.

One of the most powerful sentences I heard was: “we used to have prejudices when it came to chose who to interview, but then listening thousands of talkers made us understand that people are all basically good”

There are a lot of reasons you should watch this ted talk, the first one is that you will listen in the protagonists own voices:

The story of a mother who forgave the killer of her son: “I love you lady” “I love you son” .

The story of a transgender grandmother trying to communicate with her granddaughters: “I am walking in love”.

The story of an old man confessing his infinite love for her wife.

And the story of a boy with unsocial behavior due to a disease and his mom.

The second one is that after all this emotions, Dave will offer an interesting tool to all of us on how to create these conversations where we live.

“If you have a microphone in your hand, and you sit to listen, you will be surprised of what will happen, beginning with the fact that the person you will be listening to, will feel important”

So I ask my self what if we used this tool to whoever is in vulnerable position, what if they knew that their story will be part of a great catalogue reachable from people?

What if we asked to prisoners, or to the families from the both sides of a conflict talking about their pain, and how much similar that is?

What if we asked questions to a our relatives with the intent of listening to them? Like: “what is the greatest thing you have learned from life, or what is you biggest regret”

This question make me wonder, I have just downloaded the app, I can’t wait to have enough time to record, I will update you.

Before leaving you I have two last question for you:

what would you ask first to a relative that will add meaning to your life?

What would you like to be asked if it was someone else?

I thank you my friends, I will leave you with the hope that you will be “walking in love”.

Ps.
1.Ted talk’s link
Everyone around you has a story the world needs to hear

The app is called StoryCorps.

Anwal, a love warrior.