Day 22 - a website

My favorite website right now is called 6 Billion Others. It is a website devoted entirely to telling the stories of people I don't know and probably won't ever know. Camera crews have gone to over 70 countries and conducted over 5,000 interviews... of people. Just people. No one famous or important by typical standards. They interview a Scottish man as he paints pictures of his dog. They interview Bruno, a man in a wheelchair. They interview Yosef, an atheist Russian. They interview Penelope, an Australian laywer. And they just ask questions. "What is your first memory?" "What do you think is most important?" "What would you change about your life?" "What does love mean to you?" "What do you believe about God?" Then they film the answers. 

That's all. 

But here's the thing: it's real. I could spend hours and hours listening to people on this website because they are real. And I see pieces of myself in them. More often than not, I want to jump through the computer screen and hug these people and be their friends and talk to them about life and joy and pain and sorrow. This is something we use a lot at the MTC to help teachers and missionaries think more outside the box. It helps me realize the beauty and pertinence of the gospel... and the comfort and clarity it brings. 

6 Billion Others is out to show everyone that each individual has traits both universal and particular. That we're all unique but in so many ways we're also alike. We believe different things and come from different places but we still resemble each other. We aspire to the same happiness, we face the same problems, we need the same things. It is absolutely fascinating. Check it out, everyone.