November 11

Listening and Preserving Memories

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Enjoying good food, visiting family and friends, and sharing memories—these are all Thanksgiving traditions. Listening to members of an older generation and recording their life stories will soon be included as family holiday activities if StoryCorps is persuasive.

Think how many times you wished you had more information about a grandparent, aunt, or cousin as you’ve looked at family pictures taken decades ago, well before social media such as Snapchat, Facebook, and Instagram made picture-sharing such a modern phenomenon.

What is missing today is a meaningful story about the picture or event. Social media typically limits the text for a picture to a few words, sound bites, or characters—clearly insufficient to make it meaningful later in life. Also missing is the sound of the voice of the family member involved.

Thanks to StoryCorps, memories shared at Thanksgiving can be preserved for the future. All that is needed is a smartphone and the StoryCorps mobile app, which provides the tools for preparing questions, recording a conversation on the phone, and sharing with family and friends. In addition, uploading the conversation to the StoryCorps website archives it at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress. So far, 100,000 Americans have participated.

Recording a conversation with grandchildren is a great way to develop their speaking and listening skills, nurture an increased connectedness between generations, and further mutual respect for each other.

StoryCorps, a nonprofit organization founded in 2003, is known for traveling the country and collecting the stories of everyday people. Since 2005, it has had a weekly broadcast on NPR’s “Morning Edition.”

When founder Dave Isay received the million-dollar 2015 TED Prize, he used the funds to develop the StoryCorps app, the indispensable tool for “The Great Thanksgiving Listen.” This program is engaging people of all ages this month in the act of listening and recording their conversations. Imagine the potential when a child “across the country records an interview with an elder over Thanksgiving so that in one single weekend, an entire generation of American lives and experiences is captured,” Isay says.

Teachers and high school students are specifically encouraged to join in the inaugural “The Great Thanksgiving Listen.” Some community organizations, such as the Southern Pines Public Library, are encouraging residents to preserve the voices and stories of older Americans with a StoryCorps program.

Learn more by visiting the StoryCorps website at www.storycorps.me or finding “The Great Thanksgiving Listen” on Facebook. I’ve downloaded the StoryCorps app and reviewed the online tips. I hope to record conversations with my grandchildren this Thanksgiving. What a great way to make that holiday a more meaningful time than simply enjoying a meal.

As Alex Haley, best known for his 1976 book, “Roots,” wrote, “In every conceivable manner, the family is linked to our past, bridge to our future.”

Let “The Great Thanksgiving Listen” be your bridge to the future and encourage your family to preserve its stories and memories this holiday.

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