As you gather across the generations this Thanksgiving, I encourage you to share stories as well as a meal. Share them, celebrate them, and save them. We all have a life story – and the longer we live, the richer the story. Far too often in our fast-paced, media-driven world, the most meaningful stories can get lost. It is an act of affirmation to be asked to share our story. It is an act of love to listen. When we ask and then listen – we not only affirm, we learn. We enrich our family history. We understand our families, ourselves, and our world, in a new and more balanced way.
National Public Radio (NPR) has created the perfect way for you to capture the stories of those around you. Using their StoryCorps platform, they have issued a challenge: to collect 120,000 stories over the Thanksgiving weekend. Their goal: To create an archive containing the single largest collection of human voices ever gathered.
Their goal: To create an archive containing the single largest collection of human voices ever gathered.
For “The Great Thanksgiving Listen” they have provided a tool: a StoryCorps app (available for both iPhone and Android). The app enables you to record your interview. Even better, the recording will be archived in two places: the StoryCorps website and the Library of Congress. The stories you record today will then be available for generations of those who follow.
Interviewing someone in this way combines the sharing of wisdom, the affirmation of listening, and deepening of understanding and respect across the generations. One of my most treasured moments is interviewing my mom and dad about their life. One of my biggest regrets is not doing the same with my grandparents.
So over this Thanksgiving holiday, find someone to interview. Ask questions. Listen. Love. Learn.
Blessings to all – with gratitude for each of your stories!
Kris
One Response
Thanks Kris for sharing this information. Some of my most precious memories of my dad are those bits of information on his life that he shared during our weekly “outing” after my mom passed. Every so ofthen we would go somewhere that would spark a memory he would share with me..
It is also fun to pull out old family photos of current and passed gerations. We talk about who is in each one, where it was taken, and the occasion for the “gathering”. A couple Christmas’s ago my Aunt invited the “cousins” to Christmas, As we sat they reminised about their time in the service ans what each of the 3 had done during WWII. Last spring my sister and I took photos we found in my mothers belongings to my uncle. Among them were my great grandmothers siblings and a very precious photo of my great grandfather, my grandmother, and my mother as a newborn. it was taken in my great grandparents front yard with my grandfather’s long gone barn in the background, most likey on a Sunday in late January of 1927 based on my mother’s size and the fact that to get my great grandfathers permission to marry my grandmother, my grandfather had to promise to take her home every Sunday!
I hope that everyone takes time to share some family history over the upcoming holidays. It helps make an annual family event even more memorible.