We want to know your story. Do you remember when you were a child and asked your parents: “tell me a story”? Back then; you might not know that when you asked others to tell a story, you were posing more than a simple favor. We asked for the whole story: people, time, place, context, feeling, motive, history, and even meaning. Telling a story is about recollection and selection of moments in our life, the art of conveying it, and the value associated with it. Our selective memory shapes what we come to remember. Our stories become our standpoint in valuing our life and our relationship to others. The picture we take, the dress we choose, the song we listen to, the poem we write or recite, and the video we watch; all of these reflect the story of each moment in our life, yet they correspondingly make up who we are.
We tell stories for human connection. Stories allow us to connect to people’s thoughts, aspirations, dreams, and feelings. Humanity is like a sea of stories where people have their memory stored and evolved into new stories. Our life makes a web of stories for which humanity depends. For this reason, stories we tell matter. Telling stories we live could be uplifting, transformative, and meaningful for our self and for others to understand. We know all along that our life is the belly where stories are growing. It is up to us to give birth to stories in a meaningful way. Telling stories make our connection to each other stronger and closer.
Stories come from every direction and walk of life. We read and hear stories from people across cultures, religions or lifestyles that differ from our own. Others have stories to tell as well. Differences do not make their stories less important. Listening to other stories allow us to learn about human triumphs and failures. We also learn to cultivate our virtues of inclusive excellence and appreciation for diversity. When we listen to stories, we develop cross-cultural attitude and knowledge about others in a meaningful way. Listening to stories makes more attentive and emphatic for human connection within us to immerse.
There is no formula as to how we tell our story or whether the story is good or bad. The choice is yours. You could do this. Every one of us has a story to tell. Each story makes our life unique, recognizable, relatable and respectable. But we do not tell stories because they are stories. We tell stories we live in. We live through our stories we tell and contribute to humanity. We share stories that are meaningful, transformative, and compelling and that carry aesthetic meanings, norms, and aspiration for others to consider. Ability to see beauty in diverse cultures and their expression in norms, opinions, videos, photos and other examples is what I call aesthetic.
In January 2015, One-on-One Friendship invites you to tell a story. It would be nice to have a different story to read every day. Please submit your story online.