everyone's story deserves to be heard

I’m pretty sure Mother Earth wobbled on her axis last week when another Black man died during an act of police brutality at a time when protests against racial injustice are already sweeping the country. I imagine the planet careening out of orbit as the Covid-19 pandemic claims hundreds of thousands of lives, and forces millions to reconfigure their lives. 

The urgent and passionate stories that erupt in the aftermath of tragedies like these hold us spellbound…horrified…as fear and sorrow unfold before our eyes. We have witnessed accounts of terror, helplessness, grief, and pain. We've heard stories of courage, strength, compassion, and faith.

I don’t know about you, but those stories silenced me. The worries I harbor, the sadness I feel, the losses I face in my own life pale by comparison. Who, I wonder, would want to hear about them?

"Writing is a struggle

against silence."

~Carlos Fuentes~

For example, I could tell you about a friend whose husband died of complications after a long bout of heart failure unrelated to the Covid-19 pandemic. I could tell you what a sweet man he was, how much they loved one another, and how much he is missed. I could tell you how hard it is to watch my grandchildren struggle with loneliness and social distancing when they're at the age they need to engage in social play. You probably already know how hard it is for friends who have lost their jobs or closed their businesses...all of it dwarfed by the magnitude of the suffering we witness on the news every day.

Perhaps something like this has happened to you. You went mute because your story sounded dull or ordinary or immaterial by comparison. You felt it was unworthy to be heard. Or unnecessary to tell.

"Write what should not be forgotten."

~Isabel Allende~

It doesn’t take a natural disaster or a or a violent uprising to shut storytellers down. We do it to ourselves all the time. We trivialize the course of our own lives, lock away our memories, and dismiss our thoughts, feelings, and convictions because we doubt ourselves. We tell ourselves our stories aren’t important.

"Write hard and clear

about what hurts."

~Ernest Hemingway~

In fact, everyone’s story deserves to be heard. Storytelling is not a contest to see whose narrative is the scariest or saddest or most horrifying. Rather, it’s the pathway to truth as each of us understands it. 

"You can't make this stuff up."

~Lee Gutkind~

jan