brought to tears

We read a story or watch a film to dream, to live in another world for a moment, to become inspired by another. The stories told often incite us, engage or enrage us and we never know what sentence, what story, what words will provoke.

I read the story of John T. Williams on StoryCorps [https://storycorps.org] and it stirred something in my soul. The Native American woodcarver, half deaf and busy carving a piece of wood as he crossed a street in Seattle, was shot 4 times by a police officer.

Immediately I felt--the viewer feels-- outraged. And then the sadness envelops you. This already troubled man was engaged in the one activity he loved, his passion, his art, his happiness, and he was killed. Stories like these need to be told not only to motivate people to act for what is just after a horrendous event but also to remind us of how valuable we all are and how short life is.

We need stories of all types of people from all walks of life to speak to us, find that one nerve, tug at that one heart string and play that one chord that moves us to think with our heart. StoryCorps is a lovely idea to bring together the average person and tell their remarkable stories because we all have one story inside us that needs to be heard in more than a Tweet.

photo reprinted from StoryCorps.org