storycorps
These are amazing. I've only been able to listen to a few because the emotions are so intense (the one about the woman talking about the death of her sister will break your heart, and the one about the bus driver helping an old woman off the bus is a perfect jewel).
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Oh my goodness. I put these stories on while I did some mindless work tasks and I am transfixed. Just finished listening to the one about the Grover Washington School killings and the last story, when she said that her son's last load of laundry is still in the basket downstairs hit me like a train. I cannot imagine a hell worse than losing your child, especially in such a violent, senseless way. I see what you mean about not being able to take too many of these in one sitting. Although the two guys who were committed as children now reunited was very sweet. Hey...there's nothing wrong with looking at dirty magazines! That's what they sell them for. It makes me think about the unspoken story, about when they were kids and how one probably soothed the other throughout their childhood. About what it was like in that place. What is behind the fear.
Thanks Shane. Very moving. Something about them being "real" people makes this very powerful. I'm going to try to make it through the other stories, but maybe not tonight. I might need an emotional break!
I haven't listened to any of the full-length ones yet (and it sounds like that's what you've been listening to); I've only heard the snippets you get if you follow the link. I'll have to listen to the ones you mentioned.
As I was listening to some of the snippets, it struck me that I was listening to something very moving and powerful, as you say, but also very artful. And I like the idea that you don't have to be a specialist--a professional, in other words--to make art. We're all artists, in a way. It also struck me that you didn't hear many stories about people getting job promotions or winning competitions or striking it rich. Instead, the participants spoke about moments in which they impacted or were impacted by others--moments of communion, that is, as opposed to moments of achievement.
Today I was loading the dishwasher and suddenly the story about the two men who were institionalized as kids and then reunited after 40 years came inexplicably into my head. Out of nowhere. No segue from any prior connecting thought. The thought hit me... (and you'll have to listen to this story to appreciate this fully) but there was the one man who was soothing and encouraging the other man, and I started to wonder if he was telling his friend all the things that he wished someone would have told him. Maybe he was soothing himself more than he was his friend. Maybe we all do this to some extent. Maybe that is one of the purposes behind telling our stories. A way to process. A way to self sooth. A way to find some kind of connection in what can sometimes seem to be an isolating and cold reality. I think you are right that you don't have to be a trained artist or writer to craft an interesting tale. Especially if this tale is authentic, personal and honest. Education helps considerably to package that story into something that is comprehensible and interesting. But maybe that is the difference between oral vs written traditions. Commas don't exist in oral communication. And pregnant pauses are harder to design in a written medium. You can ramble with a large margin of forgiveness when you are talking but endless rambling in writing...case in point,what I'm doing right now..it is less endearing wouldn't you say?
LOL. Nice ramble. No, I think you're right to a degree, but there are certain things about "artfulness" that you can't teach. I was brought to my knees when a woman talking about the death of her sister played a voice mail her sister had left before her death. I don't know why it moved me, but it did. I can't comprehend it, but it's deep--deeper than words, deeper than style and technique.
I'll try'n listen to the one on the gay couple reuniting sometime this weekend.
I just subscribed to the podcast. Can't wait to have a new podcast. I think I remember hearing the piece you speak of where the woman listens to the voicemail.
This is my favorite:
http://www.storycorps.net/listen/?s=ronald+ruiz
busdriver
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