"See More Stories"

I love having facebook on my BlackBerry. It's an easy way for me to see what's happening in the lives of my friends and write quick updates as I am waiting in line at the hardware store, waiting in line at the doctors office, waiting in line at the TB clinic, waiting in line at the _________ (fill in the blank.) Can you tell my life is filled with lots of waiting in line for things?

One thing I like about facebook on the BlackBerry is that it shows you your 10 (or so) most recent updates and then has this button you can click to see older updates. On the computer version of facebook, the button says, "Older Posts." On the BlackBerry version, it says, "See More Stories." I LOVE THAT. That's why I read these updates. Because EVERYONE has a story. There have been numerous times while I've been living in Haiti these past 1 year, 8 months, and 28 days when the stories I've seen play out before my eyes seemed unreal. (I felt like I wasn't really there-- that I was watching this happen to someone else.) Sometimes they've been unbelievable (as in, I could actually NOT believe what I was seeing before my eyes.) Sometimes they've been amazing and beautiful (where tears of joy spring to my eyes.) And sometimes they've be horrific (where fear shook my body uncontrollably.)

But I am getting off topic. Sure, there are a lot of unique things that that happen here. But the truth is, the my heart resonates as much with your stories-- your blogs, your facebook updates, your tweets (now that I know what a tweet is.) I find the same kind of emotions welling up in me when I read about your new babies, fresh engagements, broken hearts, new homes, sick children, etc THERE as I do when I see them happen HERE. It's the emotion behind stories that connect us all.

I believe that everyone (in one way or another) wants their story to be validated.

As I've grown into myself in my 30's, I've realized that one aspiration for my life that I never knew that I desired, was to be a great story-teller. Stories flood my mind nearly every waking moment. I get ideas about things I want to blog or in some other way write down. The wording for a particular sentence or story will distract my thoughts until I find a time/place to write it down.

And in Haiti, this is both a blessing and a curse. A blessing because I get to be a mouthpiece (of sorts) for a lot of people who are otherwise without a voice. A curse because I get to be a mouthpiece (of sorts) for a lot of people who are otherwise without a voice. Same sentence, emphasis on different words. I love that I am blessed to be able to TRY to speak for those who cannot speak for themselves. However, I hate that I am their only option. And, while I love to write, I am just not that great at it yet. This is not a self-loathing statement. There may be times when someone's story touches a nerve with someone-- where someone gets to see a glimpse of the real situation. But that's all it will ever be-- a glimpse.

So this comes with great responsibility. A friend of mine recently sent me this article about the way the media often "prostitutes" Haiti. I agree with the sentiment of this article. But I don't think it's just the news media. I think organizations and (gasp!) even MISSIONARIES do the same thing. The "rounding up" on how many "souls were saved" on how long or how hard it is to reach a remote village to distribute supplies.

And so that is what I never want to do. It's why I hate to (and will no longer) take big teams into the camps with me and my staff-- it feels too much like the prostitution of Haiti. I have spent the better part of a year developing relationships with PEOPLE in these camps, and I hate them to be used only as a photo op. (Btw--I like to bring "bought in" people into the camps 1 or 2 at a time... to introduce my friends from HERE to my friends from THERE, and vice versa.)

I used to be a huge Michael Jackson fan. I read lots of books about him. And I had this one book-- The UNAUTHORIZED Biography of Michael Jackson. It said some pretty scathing things at times. (As one might imagine an unauthorized biography of Michael Jackson might do.) That's not the kind of stories I want to tell. I want to tell the AUTHORIZED biographies. I want to tell stories not just because they are stories, but because they are real, they are authentic, they are LIFE. I want (at any point) the subject of the stories I tell, to be able to access what I write and agree that I've represented them fairly.

I want to write about real life, because while stories draw us in and form emotional connections, if they are fiction, it's no different from picking up the latest novel or watching the latest romantic comedy-- entertainment. There's nothing wrong with entertainment unless it claims to be truth. Remember the big scandal about James Frey and A Million Little Pieces? He wrote a great story (supposedly, I haven't read it.) People ate it up! But the problem was, he presented it as truth. It was on the Non-Fiction charts. But it was fiction. It made Oprah really pissed off because she helped him sell 3.5 million copies. She was had.

Similarly, there are times in my life where I've been had. Where I've been sold into a story that wasn't true. It was a great, beautiful story, but it was fiction and I didn't know it at the time. And like Oprah, I put a lot of relational capital on the line.

I am having a hard time wrapping all these thoughts together in a neat package with a fancy ribbon on top. I guess what I want to say is that what you can expect from me is the "authorized" biography. I hope that I will always speak in truth and without exaggeration (unless it's sarcasm and extremely obvious, because that is another one of my new life aspirations). And I hope that this is an impetus for us all to think about the implication of our words: how they can bring light and honesty into a situation-- and how they can bring darkness and destroy when you present fiction as the truth.