The World Needs You

One day I received a card in the mail from one of my best friends. A blue haired, purple clad lady on the front pointed her finger at me saying,”You better get well. There aren’t that many people I like.” She added a note. “Praying for you friend. Highly motivated. Get well soon.” And here’s the part that made me reel. “The world needs you and so do I.”

Her words stirred me, creating a longing, unspecified, and an argument in my head.

The world needs you.

Not me, I say. I have just a little to give, I say. I’m insignificant in the vastness of humanity’s six billion people. I think of the countless people solving world problems, giving and giving and giving in ways I don’t, can’t, ignore or don’t think of.

I am just me. But I stew.

The world needs you.

Often I’m mystified by how the things that move one person don’t move another and how the worldwide variety of what we care about and choose to pour our lives into meshes to meet needs like a staggeringly beautiful jigsaw puzzle circling the globe.

Some of us are lit up by social justice, others by one-on-one investments in others, or cooking or nonprofits or ministry or movements, business and education, worldwide clean water and the list goes on.

And yes, writing and radio and true stories for the world. Not all 6 billion, just those who catch what we throw out.

I  have something to give. You have something to give.

Go do what you do. Do what you care about.

The world needs you.

A Sound Story: Worst Haircut Ever

Big sister gives little sister the "Worst Haircut Ever," as this public radio reporter discovers. The girls in question are his five and three-year-old daughters, and he does what any good reporter does. He gets the story. Listen and try not to smile.

Brene Brown

"Connection is why we're here. We are hardwired to connect with others, it's what gives purpose and meaning to our lives, and without it there is suffering."

-Brene Brown, Daring Greatly

True Story Lovers and Storytellers

True story lovers are my people.  My best friends are story lovers. As are lots of acquaintances I want to be my friends, and strangers I want to become acquaintances. We have our noses in a book as often as we can. We share and look for recommendations and discuss great books and wonder what’s wrong with the folks who don’t.

We listen to radio and podcasts that tell true stories and give a look into lives that resonate with ours through the intimacy of the human voice speaking to us.

We consume long-form stories like a dessert to be savored. Memoir, essays, narrative nonfiction, and radio and podcasts with a storyline. Anything with a storyline that is true is the stuff we crave. What keeps us riveted are tales of a real person’s life. We want to know what it’s like to be them. In the best ones we’re inspired to live better or connect with someone else. Or feel less alone.

True storytellers are also my people. We see stories everywhere. We craft them, long to write them and produce them, and love telling them to impact the story lovers.

We create.

To be read and listened to.

To make a little art. To inspire or change or move hearts.

We can be geeks ad infinitum about story structure, and the craft of the telling, which can make us a little odd. A conversation with likeminded storytellers where we can talk about it with people who care, is a joy like candy to a three year old.

And we’ve got to stick together because creating something that didn’t exist before (a book, a radio piece, a documentary, an article, a soufflé) is no easy-bake cake. It’s sometimes crazy hard. But we can’t not do it.

Drop by story drop we can change a speck of the world. Or lots of the world. Or reach one person.

Go read stories.

Go hear stories.

Go make stories.

The world needs you.

This Blog and Such

This is a blog about true story. It’s for story lovers and storytellers. It’s a home for those of us in the true story tribe who love memoir, narrative nonfiction, public radio, literary journalism.

It’s a place for people who want to find, produce, talk about and tell stories that are true. Stories that are artful and factual. Nonfiction that reads or sounds like fiction. Ones that have both the deliciousness of story and the knowledge that it exists in the real world.

Here’s what I have to give: a passion for true story.

I hope this blog gives you some inspiration to create and suggestions for great reads and great radio. I love to share what I’m learning that’s practical and useful about living a creative life, productivity and tech for creatives and storytellers. I want to share interviews with interesting people and give backstory to some pieces--the process, tips, the whys, and extra material that didn’t make it in. Yes, we learn and get inspired and all those good things, but also it’s just plain fun.

They are more than entertainment or information, they are a little art that has the power to move and inspire us, make us feel less alone, contribute to the culture, resonate with things that matter and help us think larger about the world. We learn about others’ lives so we can live better ones and do a little good.

I created this blog because, well, I’m an author. I write. I promise not to talk about my dog or cat because I got rid of them due to their being crazy, but I can’t promise I won’t talk about my family or my life sometimes (you know, memoir and all that).

Let’s create and consume true stories.

Let’s make something.

Let’s do good.

Ready, set, go.