have you laughed with someone today?
—
“a wonderful thing about true laughter
is that it just destroys any kind of system of dividing people.”
-john cleese
Dec3
Category Archives: connection
Oct23
nailed it.
I stopped by a new nail salon on my way home from school today
where I met a nail tech from Cambodia
we had a bit of a hard time understanding each other
but had a mostly unspoken friendly rapport between us
the rain started pouring down really hard outside
I noticed I was the only customer in the whole salon
and the hallmark channel was on
showing holiday tv movies
with subtitles
the whole staff was watching
I had come just in time for the last 15 minutes of the current movie
where the man and woman met again
right before she was almost leaving town to go home forever
and he had decided to stay and not go to the big city
a special dog was found, it was Christmas Eve, in a small town,
with a big misunderstanding, the whole town was at one event
somehow it all suddenly came together and worked out
and as the final scene played out on screen
my nail guy stood up smiling and nodding with tears in his eyes
looking around at his co-workers and down at me
and it made me tear up and smile too
as we had found our common ground.
—
“anyway, stories bring us together to find common ground, to find our way through life together, or just to entertain us, and I am just thrilled to be a part of that process.”
-dorothea benton frank
—
image credit: pinterest
Nov26
lift.
had to catch an early morning flight
out of the little village of new york city
super shuttle came to the rescue
arriving right on time at 3:20am
picking up 6 other people along the way –
2 young women speaking korean
1 southern man speaking with a heavy twang
1 set of parents who giggled and hummed along with the radio
and their two year old boy
who yelled out ‘woah, man!’
every few mintues for no apparent reason
making everyone laugh over and over
couldn’t have had a better crew to send me off on my way
what a lift.
—
“i love those connections that make this big old world feel like a little village.”
-gina bellman
—
image credit: supershuttle.com
Nov22
gathering.
“this is the power of gathering:
it inspires us, delightfully, to be more hopeful, more joyful, more thoughtful:
in a word, more alive.”
-alice waters
Aug31
shared humanity.
in yet another amazing case of serendipity
i was recently at school (in the united states)
attending a professional development session
with colleagues who were describing a wonderful project
they had undertaken with their students.
during the last school year they had worked on design thinking projects
intended to help our world’s environment in some way.
throughout the process
the teachers provided the students
with a wide range of sources of information having to do with their area of interest.
during our seminar, they passed around some of the sample articles they had used.
imagine my surprise when reading the random article that i was handed
and i saw the photographic credit on the back page
realizing that i had a connection to it.
it read:
‘michel porro – getty images.’
michel porro is a long time friend of mine who i happened to meet
when we were both working at the world cup in my city 24 years ago.
michel, at the time was a photojournalist from the netherlands, stationed in hong kong, working for reuters, and covering events all over the world. i was in advertising, taking time off to working in the media tent for the duration of the event. we met there and continued to run into each other in a variety of places, though we never had the chance to meet up outside of a working situation, try as we might.
we finally had the chance, and it was the last night before he was to leave. unfortunately brazil won, causing a chain of unusual events, that led to our last chance to meet not ever happening.
since that time, (24 years ago), we’ve stayed pen pals, and followed what’s happened in each other’s lives. i wrote an earlier blog about our long distance unlikely long term friendship and the link is below, but i’ve somehow lost the photo part of the post.
—
—
upon seeing his name again last week, i texted to tell him about my surprise. he texted back surprised as well. our paths continue to cross in the most interesting ways.
| B Kennedy |
| to Michel |
small world, Michel
Sent from my iPhone
——–
Michel Porro
| to me |
Wow Beth, that is amazing. Thank you so much for sharing. Boyat (the subject in the photo) is a quiet man with a big mission. I met him twice for 2 photoshoots.
How are you doing? I’m in Italy at the moment. The world is a turbulent place isn’t it?
You do good work.
Best
Michel
—
“this idea of shared humanity and the connections that we make with one another – that’s what, in fact, makes life worth living.”
-clint smith
