Around the world … storytelling

Sometimes it takes a push to get the ball rolling and finally take the path that has long been prepared and pick up speed. On the platform Story.one I found the announcement of a competition for stories of encounters and travels “around the world” and now the opportunity to publish them in English.

And so I finally realized the long-held resolution to tell stories about special people.

Perhaps we travel precisely because of these stories, which we collect along the way and bring with us in our luggage. And at the same time, we know we can’t hunt them like shy game, nor gather them like mushrooms. Ultimately, they are gifts when encounters and insights condense into stories that are worth remembering and telling beyond the day.

This is also where the difference between a tourist and a traveler has always been apparent to me. When we take photos or, to enhance authenticity and satisfy the narcissist in us, a selfie, we collect images like trophies. But other than the banal statement that St. Peter’s Square, the Eiffel Tower are as real as Victoria Falls and Lake Titicaca, we bring home only individual images, but no stories. Stories emerge when we relate to people and things. As my academic teacher used to say: Experiences without reflection are a waste! When traveling, we are permanently challenged to relate to the unfamiliar environment. And it is only in the foreign country that our own becomes clear to us and we can name it. After all, we take ourselves with us everywhere, and with us in our luggage the stories we have collected so far.

I have learned very simple things, for example, that it makes sense to drink hot drinks even in very hot weather, that you can use water instead of paper to go to the toilet, that you don’t necessarily need a bed to sleep in, and that coffee can be prepared in so many ways. But I also learned that there are other ways of life and other ways of making sense of this world, and that despite all the cultural differences, we humans are united by empathy, solidarity, and laughter.

And I also learned that we must tell our stories to each other. Because just as they shape us personally, they have also shaped us as societies. Especially in a diverse society, immigrants bring their stories with them in their luggage, and the identity of a group, a city, and a country requires, as with the individual, the bringing together of the individual stories into a narrative.

These contributions are about my stories in my luggage … and even if the competition on Story.one has ended, I will continue to tell them.