all these wonders

I first came across The Moth on Youtube a few years ago. I am a big fan of beautiful storytelling. In my mind, The Moth is TED meets artistic creativity. Most of the people profiled in this book are creatives: writers, comedians, actors. And they indeed are incredible storytellers. The Moth bills itself as "'dinner party stories' moved to the stage and recognized as art."

The first few stories felt slow, but there were a few that I especially liked: Ishmael Beah's Unusual Normality, Arthur Bradford's The Quest for Chad, Kevin Mcgeehan's It Matters a Great Deal, Hasan Minhaj's Prom, and Dori Samadzai Bonner's "A New Home."

"Prom" hit so close to home. I love how Minhaj talked about "this gorgeous house with a beautiful white picket fence," a "family [that] looked like it had been cut out of a J.Crew catalog." For me, the white picket fence epitomizes the ideal that anyone who has ever been an immigrant in America aspires to. I, for one, have always wanted to grow up in a happy suburban home with two SUVs, PB&J sandwiches in my lunch box, and that perfect, manicured lawn, one that is always greener than the one I had at home. I know all too well the feeling of attempting to make up what I lack in "real-life" game with a humorous persona; of coping with immigrant parents who forsake leisure for the fulfillment of the American dream; of being told that I am not "good enough" for the family picture. I broke when I read the words that Minhaj's father left him with: "You have to be brave, and the courage to do what’s right has to be greater than your fear of getting hurt."

Another favorite was Dori Samadzai Bonner's "A New Home." Samadzai Bonner's family fled Kabul in the early 1990s on forged papers, sought political asylum in the United States, and after a long and painful process, finally won citizenship. Something that struck me in her story was when she said that even when her family struggled to afford their meals, they saved money for an immigration attorney. This is why I want to be a lawyer. In the ending, Samadzai talks about her love, allegiance, and gratitude for her newfound homeland. She ends with the following: "May God Bless Our America." America is ours. 

I loved this book overall because it showed me how powerful good storytelling can be. Indeed, honesty matters. Vulnerabilty matters. In the introduction, the editor writes about how good storytelling connects us, because as humans, we are an "assemblage of stories." Through stories, we learn that the things we see as divisions - race, skin color, gender, social class - are illusory. And every story is a gift.