When I originally wrote about figuring out how to talk to my son about the tragedy of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, I expected to hear from a few smart parents, or a handful of communications peers. My website was new, and I had not been posting that much about these kind of issues. The reaction I received surprised me, and reminds me just how important storytelling, or making a personal connection between an event, a place, and a moment, is for people. It’s especially imporant in the wake of something as devastating as what we are still seeing unfold in Japan.
Multiple people replied to the blog and/or found me on social media to interact. They stated a few different reasons for reaching out, but one common thread stood out among the notes and messages. Most were not interested not so much in reacting to the blog, but wanted to tell me their stories about where they were when they first heard the news of the earthquake and tsunami. They were engaging in storytelling of a very personal kind.
Part of the storytelling conveys how we are connected with the tragedy. What we felt when we saw the images in Japan, how we mourn with the victims and what actions we will take – even from afar – to help alleviate the suffering. Another part of this storytelling puts the milestones of our life into perspective. We are able to gauge highs and lows of our lives and include those collective moments when the world’s attention is tuned-in, and in-tune, with a global event that we feel at our deepest levels…such as the earthquake in Japan.
My kids will now have this connection, and their personal story, as part of their life history. They will remember where they were when the earthquake struck. I imagine it will be one of their earliest memories of this kind. They will be telling their kids about similar moments that I can already hear myself telling them. I can still remember (and often tell them) where I was when the 1988 earthquake decimated portions of Armenia – and struck at the soul of so many of my family members and friends in the Diaspora community. Like most of you reading this, I of course remember where I was when President Reagan was shot, when we lost the Space Shuttle Columbia, on 9/11, and when the Berlin Wall fell.
The point of connection and action remains important and is something I want to explore. As I write this I can recall my mother recounting where she was on the day that President Kennedy was killed. She and a number of young mothers in her neighborhood heard the news on their televisions or radios, and spontaneously walked onto their lawns. Babies in arms, these young women wept and attempted to process what they had just seen on TV. They connected with the tragic news by wanting to connect with one another. My mother told me, “We had to get out of the house – we had to be outside – just to talk with someone and be with them.”
We as neighbors still do this. Sometimes we walk out onto our lawn, sometimes we send an SMS, other times we blog. In each way, we are telling a story and adding to our own.
P.S. Read here an interesting discussion I ran across on Weber Shandwick’s Social Impact blog related to this issue.