Somewhere, in a cozy middle class home in Hamburg, Germany there’s a mantel with a framed photograph. A couple beams, the man’s arms wrapped tightly around his wife as some famous landmark towers behind them.
The atmosphere seems festive, there’s a balloon that looks to have escaped the grasp of a young boy, a hot dog vendor bellows in the background, and just off in the distance there’s a person sitting pensively on a bench.
Wait, it’s YOU.
Have you ever wondered how many photos around the world you’re in the backdrop of?
The nightstands, desks, and pianos you grace as a supporting character in the memories of complete strangers?
The number of events happening in real time you’ll never know about? The people and the STORIES you’ll never hear told?
How somewhere in Chitwan, Nepal a family celebrates their daughter’s first birthday.
In a cramped Chicago cubicle, a man finally decides to quit his soul-sucking job to travel the world.
Peering through a fence, wondering what the future has in store, is a girl in a Syrian refugee camp.
Two floors below your apartment a single mother gets word her son has overdosed on heroin, while just across the street another mother learns her daughter will be the first in their family to go to college.
In Lahaina, Maui a woman in her 50s cruises downtown on her bicycle to catch the sunset. A man scribbling notes nearby will never know it makes her feel closer to the daughter who will no longer speak to her.
Behind the wheel of Chevrolet Suburban is a young woman fearlessly navigating through the streets of Riyadh even though she knows it’s illegal for women to drive. She doesn’t care. To her unjust laws aren’t laws at all.
On Broadway, the house lights are dimmed because a beloved actor of the stage has died.
InBelgrade, a teenage boy walks along the Danube River as he considers taking his own life.
Somewhere 35,000 feet over the Atlantic, a couple well into their 80s takes their first plane ride.
In Mombasa, a man is shaken down by a corrupt police officer for the third time this month.
Huddled over a kitchen table in a conservative midwestern town, a 19-year man comes out to his parents.
In Tel Aviv, a middle-aged man ambles down Rothschild Boulevard, desperately trying to figure out how to save his marriage.
At a dive bar in Ontario, it takes 5 beers for a man to muster up the courage to ask his friend to be the best man in his wedding.
For the first time in her life, a girl from a troubled home lifts her eyes from the ground because a teacher tells her she’s talented.
In Tupelo, Mississippi a man in his late 60s learns to read.
A teenage boy in Puerto Varas, Chile takes his first sip of beer and hates it. He wonders what all the fuss is about.
A woman in her 50s votes for the first time, finally convinced her community’s future must be different.
Events are happening in real time all over the world, weaving together the stories that comprise our humanity. Every moment of every day there is genuine joy, despair, triumph, tragedy, community, loneliness, injustice, and mystery constantly unfolding.
Each of us is a profoundly interesting and important story worth telling.
We should treat one another accordingly.
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