The world is in pain. There are wars. Our queer community is denied their rights. Climate disasters are happening across the globe. Covid still lingers. Human-induced tragedy seems ongoing and unstoppable at the moment and each of us suffers from it in varying degrees.
Thankfully we have stories.
Whether it is TV, film, books, podcasts or games you dive into, they are all stories. Whether you do it to escape reality or to deal with it, stories get us through.
Stories are vital to human survival. Without them we wouldn’t be here. We’d have been eaten by that infamous tiger, because we hadn’t heard from anyone around us that hungry tigers in fact munch on us humans.
But besides literal survival stories have another function. One that is vital to me: it creates understanding and empathy between human beings.
When we read a story that reminds us of ourselves we feel seen and heard. We feel connected.
When we read a story that is out of our own lived experience it creates an understanding of a different reality than our own. We feel empathy.
Connection and empathy: to me those are the key ingredients to humanity.
On an individual level connection and empathy create happiness and a sense of safety.
On a global level connection and empathy create a society based on understanding and peace.
Do we need the individual and global now more than ever.
And so we need stories. We need stories to feel ourselves connected to others and to the world. We need stories to understand other people, other cultures, other countries. We need stories to be human.
Stories possess an innate power. Storytelling is powerful.
So write your story. We need it now more than ever.