Listening is an Act of Love

Listening is an Act of Love: A Celebration of American Life from the StoryCorps Project, edited and with an introduction by Dave Isay

From the Introduction:
"StoryCorps is built on a few basic ideas: That our stories--the stories of everyday people--are as interesting and important as the celebrity stories we're bombarded with by the media every minute of the day. That if we take the time to listen, we'll find wisdom, wonder, and poetry in the lives and stories of the people all around us. That we all want to know our lives have mattered and we won't ever be forgotten. That listening is an act of love."

StoryCorps is an organization that sets up recording booths at different places around the country, you make an appointment, you bring your dad, friend, neighbor or whoever. A trained facilitator meets you, takes you into the booth, and shuts the door. You sit at a table across from one another, each with a microphone in front of you, the facilitator pushes Record, and you start asking questions.

Which is how this wonderful collection of stories/interviews came to be. The stories of everyday Americans, some on their good days, others on not so good days, still others on the worse days of their lives. I found this collection very powerful, and I'll share a few stories that really have had a strong impact on me.

As a mother, the story of the father telling about how his son was getting ready to die, was terrifying. The son isn't sick with anything, doesn't have a life threatening illness, nothing, but the father tells of how this boy sensed what the future held, and made his last months meaningful. He had a party with friends, bought his mother's day presents, picked out father's day presents, made it all around the bases at his little league game, and then collapsed in the dugout. I want to bawl thinking about it, and even though it is terrifying in the sense of being worried about my own kids, it gives such power to LIFE, and living it TODAY. Go tell someone you love them and give them hugs and kisses, I'm going to.

Okay, I'm back. Another story is a conversation between two inmates in prison, who are both likely to be there a long time, and they are talking about making choices and consequences to choices, and there they are living the consequences of their choices, and I just thought how this could impact people, children, young people, in general, if they really took the time to think about it.

The chapter with stories from people who were impacted by the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001, and Hurricane Katrina were heartbreaking. Both of those incidents have had such a profound effect on my own vision of the world around me, but to hear directly from people who were directly impacted was amazing, and saddening, and a whole range of emotions.

I highl recommend this book.
Thumbs UP.