Humans Thinking-Big started as a small project aiming to collect simple messages from special people around the world during my trips and encounters.
After two and a half months, we realized that all the work involved (from choosing or asking for pictures, asking and waiting for permissions, creating the layout and publishing) it was not such a small project.
And we felt the need to stop and evaluate the importance of it.
Why investing time and energy in a project paying homage to special people around the world?
And the answers were multiple, powerful and absolutely obvious to us.
a) Because, "Other people matter", like C. Peterson used to say.
Because we feel we lack good stories coming, wonderful examples being shared, simple and important messages being reminded.
Our times need inspiration. This project is a medium to share powerful messages from people from around the world regardless of race, age, nationality or religion as small pieces of wisdom that can help us enhance our own wisdom from within.
b) Also, as the project started to unfold we started to feel our own developing sense of gratitude. Gratitude for each of these encounters, for each of these pieces of words that came at the right time and stayed.
Paying these homages was a way of also enhancing and deepen this feeling of gratitude and, who knows, helping others being more aware of all the similar stories they have around them and how important they can be.
c) Last but not the least, this project's importance came from the fact that by praising relationship we also improve the feeling of meaning.
The theme of "relationships and meaning" is one of our focus and one of the papers we've been reading highlights this connection in a clear way:
"From first graders to 91 years old, psychiatric patients to non-patients and from Spain to South Africa, overwhelmingly people pay homage to relationships as critical to their own construction of meaning." (O'Donnell et al., 2014)*
This is indeed, the power of each of these stories in my life: they've created meaning in my life, helping finding significance and making sense of it.
Being connected with others, with other stories, with other ways of living and perceiving the world also helped me shaping and creating my own perception of the world. And I find it, despite all, a very powerful and interesting world to live in, indeed. And something worth fighting for. Relationships may still be a good reason to believe.
Of course not so good experiences happen/have happened too. Some not-so-nice encounters and experiences make part of the story as well. But the overall feeling is of a good quality perceived in simple gestures and narratives.
So today, after something so "hope-shattering" that happened yesterday in Paris, I felt the need to stress my faith in Humanity ,civilization and democracy and to praise each of the people, each of you, each of us, who keep endeavouring to create a world where it still makes sense to live in, where Hope can still be in ON mode and where a Meaning can still be perceived and found.
Because "other people matter" not only for our individual lives, but also for our sense of togetherness, connectedness and sense making of all of this.
Today, let's celebrate the Others, being each of us, an "other" to each other.
Edite A.
*O’Donnell, M. B., Bentele, C. N., Grossman, H. B., Le, Y., Jang, H., & Steger, M. F. (2014). You, me, and meaning: an integrative review of connections between relationships and meaning in life. Journal of Psychology in Africa,24(1), 44-50.
After two and a half months, we realized that all the work involved (from choosing or asking for pictures, asking and waiting for permissions, creating the layout and publishing) it was not such a small project.
And we felt the need to stop and evaluate the importance of it.
Why investing time and energy in a project paying homage to special people around the world?
And the answers were multiple, powerful and absolutely obvious to us.
a) Because, "Other people matter", like C. Peterson used to say.
Because we feel we lack good stories coming, wonderful examples being shared, simple and important messages being reminded.
Our times need inspiration. This project is a medium to share powerful messages from people from around the world regardless of race, age, nationality or religion as small pieces of wisdom that can help us enhance our own wisdom from within.
b) Also, as the project started to unfold we started to feel our own developing sense of gratitude. Gratitude for each of these encounters, for each of these pieces of words that came at the right time and stayed.
Paying these homages was a way of also enhancing and deepen this feeling of gratitude and, who knows, helping others being more aware of all the similar stories they have around them and how important they can be.
c) Last but not the least, this project's importance came from the fact that by praising relationship we also improve the feeling of meaning.
The theme of "relationships and meaning" is one of our focus and one of the papers we've been reading highlights this connection in a clear way:
"From first graders to 91 years old, psychiatric patients to non-patients and from Spain to South Africa, overwhelmingly people pay homage to relationships as critical to their own construction of meaning." (O'Donnell et al., 2014)*
This is indeed, the power of each of these stories in my life: they've created meaning in my life, helping finding significance and making sense of it.
Being connected with others, with other stories, with other ways of living and perceiving the world also helped me shaping and creating my own perception of the world. And I find it, despite all, a very powerful and interesting world to live in, indeed. And something worth fighting for. Relationships may still be a good reason to believe.
Of course not so good experiences happen/have happened too. Some not-so-nice encounters and experiences make part of the story as well. But the overall feeling is of a good quality perceived in simple gestures and narratives.
So today, after something so "hope-shattering" that happened yesterday in Paris, I felt the need to stress my faith in Humanity ,civilization and democracy and to praise each of the people, each of you, each of us, who keep endeavouring to create a world where it still makes sense to live in, where Hope can still be in ON mode and where a Meaning can still be perceived and found.
Because "other people matter" not only for our individual lives, but also for our sense of togetherness, connectedness and sense making of all of this.
Today, let's celebrate the Others, being each of us, an "other" to each other.
Edite A.
*O’Donnell, M. B., Bentele, C. N., Grossman, H. B., Le, Y., Jang, H., & Steger, M. F. (2014). You, me, and meaning: an integrative review of connections between relationships and meaning in life. Journal of Psychology in Africa,24(1), 44-50.
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