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You and I have heard that not long ago our ancestors used to gather around the fire pit every night and listen to the elders tell stories, most of which were fascinating for they brought always amazing adventures lived by people like us, sometimes describing shocking happenings and aftermaths, often about places or people close to our family and always closing with a message that everyone would take as a personal teaching to reflect on at bed time.
But those family times are gone for many of us. Some say is the omnipresent artificial light and mass media in our lives, some say is the constant disarticulation of our families due to work or just the modern dynamic of uninterrupted consumerism imposed by the present society, where there is not time to meditate since there is so much information to consume and enjoy. Assuming, all that rudimentary storytelling has long been dissolved by the continuous literature published or the daily newscasts. So, within a few generations we have turned a blind eye to the deep wisdom of storytellers around us.
Nevertheless, story telling is an innate and pressing need of human communities and shows itself eventually, no matter how distracted we are or want to be, human life and its drama comes from the further corners of earth to deliver messages, teachings and wisdom.
So, I advice we make a sudden stop and take a 360 turn and see who is surrounding us and ask ‘why are they here, where do they come from’ and little by little will hear different stories, dramas, adventures, and knowledge that will open our minds to what is going on ten thousand miles from here and why it is in our convenience to know it.
If you, like I, are willing to seat around the fire pit of our daily life. Especially if you are in Europe or somewhere in North America, you will listen and ponder with new eyes to the millions of stories behind all that exotic diversity of cultures surrounding us.
I personally have got to hear many stories of migrants; people uprooted from their home lands by war, prosecution, poverty and yes even love. All migrants tend to go through similar experiences when resettling their lives as ‘strangers in a strange land’. However, it would be a far fetch to say that they are all the same, by the contrary, each one is a singular product of the countless interactions of the human settlements worldwide.
The great majority of these migrants are youngsters that have a strong desire to pursuit happiness with dignity; none pretend to give you a teaching, even less intent to lecture you on their needs. They just work and live and if you want they will also share their experiences.
And you will see that every migrant is a life and every life is a story, and every story holds a teaching, brought from far corners of the earth, for you to reflect on when you go to bed at night.
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Writer Profile
Cardenas
An Ecuadorian & US citizen, who has worked with community based organizations all his life.
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Comments
appraise Raisa Bhuiyan | Jan 12th, 2010
Hi Milton,
This is a great piece of work you have here. I really liked it. Hope that you continue writing more insightful tidbits.
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