THE STORYTELLER'S MANIFESTO

i.

We are not storytellers. We are human beings.

We are not instruments of passion, purpose, or plot.

We are more.

Today stories transform humans into pixels on a scrollable newsfeed. We become agenda-driven devices. Means for catharsis, escapism.

30 second social media experiments. Funny cats, fake news, laughing babies, ads, apps, and poverty porn flashing on our screens.

There are too many things vying for our attention. We are overstimulated by a cacophony of meaning.

We are numb.

Where are the “real” human beings in all the good and bad bullshit out there?

ii.

We are now reclaiming what we have lost.

We seek to attune to the singular encounter of the human being in its rawest form.

Attunement recaptures our ability to sit and listen to each other.

So we find austere beauty in the mundane.

We resist the instrumentation of single stories.

We persist in connecting, paying attention, and attuning ourselves to the lives of others.

We insist in sharing human-centered stories.

Only when we give ourselves — fully and fearlessly — over to the encounter with another can we experience true and transformational empathy.

iii.

Slow down.

Pay attention to the smallness of the moment.

Slow down.

Refuse to be consumed or melted down.

Slow down.

Inhabit, embody. Share life and do not tell me a story.