Stories

“If you don’t read or know stories then you will be accepting a lot of lies” –Brian Doyle

Last Friday I had the privilege of attending a Brian Doyle reading on campus at Brigham Young University.  Brian Doyle is an award-winning writer and editor of the University of Portland’s magazine, Portland.  I have never attended a reading before and I was pleasantly surprised how insightful it was to listen to Doyle read and discuss the inspiration behind his works. 

“Stories are important”, “stories, stories, stories”, “if someone tells you a story your job is to write it down and share it.”  If there is one thing I learned from Brian Doyle, it’s the importance of stories.  And the more I think about it, the more I agree with him.  Whether we realize it or not, stories affect every aspect of our lives.  The books we read and the movies we watch are nothing but stories.  History in all its forms, including our own personal histories, are full of stories; some good, some bad.  Stories of courage, perseverance, and achievement and stories of disappointment, fear, and failure.  Every story we have ever heard has had an impact on our lives, good or bad.  It’s these stories that shape us into better people by providing role models or inspiring us to join a certain cause. 

One story that I have loved since childhood is the Harry Potter Series.  There is just something in the story that brings me back and makes me read it again.  Although fictional stories such as the Harry Potter can have a huge effect on us, the stories that really matter are the ones that are real.  Real-life adventures and tragedies with real-life people, those are the stories that have the ability to truly change us.  But, unfortunately, those are the ones that are left on the bookshelf where only dust can enjoy their contents. 

"Left to Tell" Book Review

Looking for a good book to read?  I highly recommend "Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust" by Immaculee Ilibagiza.  Immaculee was a young university student in 1994 when the Hutu government in Rwanda began slaughtering the Tutsi minority in the country.  Because she was Tutsi, Immaculee was forced to go into hiding or be killed.  This book tells the amazing true story of how she survived and dealt with the heartbreak that followed. 

I loved this book!  I've read multiple books about people's experiences from the Holocaust in Germany and other similar tragedies but I'd never really felt the emotion behind them until I read Immaculee's story.  The sheer horror of the events that took place were almost overwhelming. 

The book was a huge eye-opener for me because I had never heard about the Rwandan genocide; Immaculee Ilibagiza does a very good job of weaving the history behind the genocide and her personal story together.  I was asked to read the book for a class so at first I was a little skeptical because most books professors ask you to read are informative but not at all interesting.  This book is definitely and exception to that rule, I couldn’t put it down!

Immaculee Ilibagiza has become one of my heroes after reading this book.  I don’t know how she found the strength to forgive the people who killed her family but it inspired me to be more forgiving of those who have wronged me.  If Immaculee can find it in her heart to forgive then I certainly can.  I know some people aren’t religious but I am and this book definitely increased my faith in God.  Through her faith, Immaculee was able to make something good come out of a horrible situation. 

I would recommend this book to anyone, religious or not.  Not only is it a huge eye-opener about what happened in Rwanda in 1994 but I also believe that you could learn a lot about life from it.  Forgiveness and hope are not purely Christian virtues but can offer peace and comfort to anyone who needs it.  The book raises a lot of questions about humanity and how people can do such horrible and senseless things but it also offers a plan for a brighter future.   

Final Salgado Post

For my last Salgado photo post, I chose a picture of three women walking through the Lar do Cangalo refugee camp with pots of water on their heads.  It’s a seemingly normal photograph, except for one thing.  All of the women are walking on their knees, each of them having lost at least one leg in a landmine explosion.  These women are “misplaced persons” from Angola, they aren’t officially considered refugees because they haven’t left their home country.  This lesser status certainly doesn’t do justice to all that they have endured.  For one thing, the countless number of landmines that were placed throughout the country have left thousands of people crippled and in desperate need of help. 

Yet despite all of these hardships, the human spirit finds a way to carry on.  That’s the message that I took from this picture, you have to carry on no matter what.  Salgado’s photographs don’t just expose the plights of refugees, it shows us how strong the human spirit is and how much it can endure.  Humans are a deeply flawed species and there are so many horrible mistakes that we have made.  But there is hope for our future, if we just push forward with loving hearts and open minds. 

Sources:

Salgado, Sebastiao. Migrations. pg. 226 Paris: AMAZONAS, 2000.