‘Make less strangers’...here’s what I mean

I firmly believe that if WE (humans) are going to survive and thrive then WE (all of us) need to get to know each other on deeper levels than “What do you do?” “Where are you from?” “What’s your favorite color?” I’m interested in the WHY of it all. I want to know what IT felt like when THAT thing happened. 

I want you to tell me a story. I want you to WANT to tell me a story so that we can connect. Stories are an act of courage and can be an act of liberation. When we take the time to get to know each other’s stories, we are taking the time to understand WHO someone really is. We grow closer to understanding all of the things we have in common with each other in addition to the things that make us different.

I don’t care who you are or where you are, we can always find some things that we have in common. There’s always going to be a similar experience, we just need the time and space to find the commonalities. We just need to listen to what another person thinks and then to have curiosity about WHERE that belief comes from. Hard to do in today’s world but still completely possible if we are intentional. 

That’s right, Front Porch Sessions is intentional. Meaning: I did it on purpose! You will leave a Front Porch Sessions event having learned something...either about yourself or about someone you’ve never met before and that will always be worth the price of admission. Listening to stories helps us to bridge our differences.

When I have a better understanding about your experiences we enter into a social contract with one another, recognizing the complexity and intricacy of our experiences, making it easier to hear what each other is saying.

AND for those of you wondering why we say Make Less Strangers in the World instead of Make Fewer Strangers in the world the answer is simple. I’m a rebel. I like the way less sounds and I simply don’t care about the rules of grammar all of the time. Also let’s be honest, doesn’t the word less roll off the tongue so much better than the word fewer?

Anyways, I am sending you an open invitation to join me in making less strangers in the world and just maybe by doing that we can help to make it a better place to live in.