"take it easy, but take it"

in honor of the life and work of studs terkel.
i did my first interviews at the storycorps booth in san francisco this sunday, and having just heard about studs terkel's passing the night before, his life and legacy were on my mind. the idea behind storycorps is to record the stories of everyday people's lives, their lessons and treasures and misstakes and passions. i work with them because i am fascinated with people's stories; i learn so much from the experiences and perspectives of others. this is an oral history project aiming to record history from the bottom up, so to speak, from the mouths of ordinary people. i do the work, also, because i believe it's a service to people. both to those who, like me, value and benefit from listening to other people talk about their experiences and finding threads of commonality with our own lives, and also a service to those who come to record their stories with with a loved one in the soundbooth. i see now that the interview booth can be transformative - it provides a space to start conversations that you just haven't been able to ask about over the kitchen table, and it provides a legacy for people's lives, for family history, in fact for history in general.
studs terkel embodied this purpose with his life's work, from radio to writing - documenting the lives and thoughts of ordinary people, providing spaces for us to learn from each other. the chicago tribune did a really nice piece on his life here.
and i remember hearing his interview on democracy now a couple years ago, an incredible interview for having just been the oldest person to undergo open heart surgery a week or two before the interview.
so thank you, studs, for leaving a legacy of listening, closely and with intention, to each other.