FMF31 2018 Day 1: STORY

I am participating in 31 Days of Five Minute Free Writes 2018 (all of my submissions can be found here).

Today’s prompt is: STORY

I was involved in a remarkable Facebook Live yesterday. Typically, that Facebook Live is a “readalong” of the Sunday New York times. Yesterday was different.

We did have the Times as our anchor, but given the public discourse underway about people’s very personal experiences with sexual assault, we touched on the paper but focused more intently on people’s stories.

I had a small role behind the scenes helping the host by adding relevant links (for example, one of the participants spoke about Denim Day Milwaukee and I dropped in that link).

The host had told me on the phone the night before that he planned to share his personal story about sexual assault. Once he knew I had a story, he asked if I wanted to share mine. A few hours later, I said I would.

As it turns out, I wasn’t able to join the Facebook Live even though I was willing, so I wrote it all out in the comments. To help the people who only listen to the readout instead of watch, the host read my story out loud.

And at that moment, it occurred to me that although it would have been powerful for me to tell my story on camera, perhaps the true power of stories lies, in a way, in writing them out and then hearing them from someone else’s voice. It’s a different type of sharing that enables them to experience what I have to say in a different way.

I left the hour and a half (plus, because we ran over) grateful for the communities we stumble into in this life, for “old-fashioned” paper newspapers that evolve into digital communities, and for being able to trust people I have never met, who have still proven their credibility in other ways, with my most difficult experiences.

Paula Kiger

Wife of one, Mom of two, Friend of many. My pronouns are she/her/hers.