Wir als Menschen

Es gibt einen Mann, der in New York lebt, und der Fotos von Menschen macht. Er heißt Brandon und seine Aufnahmen werden auf Facebook inzwischen von über 15 Millionen Menschen verfolgt. Wo andere Menschen auf der Straße vorbeilaufen, bleibt er stehen und macht Fotos. So sind auf seiner Website schon Tausende Gesichter und Geschichten festgehalten worden, die von skurril zu alltäglich, von zu Tränen rührend zu zum Lachen bringend reichen. Geschichten, von denen man sonst nie etwas mitbekommen hätte. Ich finde seine Arbeit deswegen so wichtig, da sie einem vor Augen hält, das jeder Mensch, unabhängig von Aussehen, Geschlecht, Religion, Hautfarbe, Herkunft, usw., am Ende doch eben nur das ist: ein Mensch. Jemand, der seine eigenen Geschichten und Erfahrungen gesammelt hat, der geliebt, gelacht und geweint hat und der wie wir alle der Zeit, dem Alltag und dem Leben ausgesetzt ist.Vor dem Hintergrund der Katastrophe der Menschlichkeit, die in den Medien auf das Wort "Flüchtlingskrise" reduziert wird, will ich mit euch ein paar Geschichten teilen, die ich besonders anregend, rührend und schön fand. Und ich will euch meinerseits dazu auffordern, selber einen Blick auf HONY zu werfen, der just heute verkündet hat, in den nächsten Tagen Geschichten von Menschen, die nach Europa geflohen sind und auf Unterstützung und Sicherheit hofften, zu teilen.

 

"I've spent my life trying to undo habits - especially habits of thinking. They narrow your interaction with the world. They're phrases that come easily to your mind, like: 'I know what I think', or 'I know what's going to happen today'. If you just replace 'know' with 'don't know', then you start to move into the unknown. And that's where the interesting stuff happens."

„My wife and I are trying to cut back on the language at home. Something fell off the kitchen table last week, and my four year old daughter said: ‘Oh, shit!’ So not only has she learned to cuss, but she’s learned to cuss correctly.”

“There are days when I can be great at my job and there are days when I can be a great mom. I’m trying to have as many days that I can do both at the same time. And I’m learning to forgive myself on the days that I can’t.”

“I got a message from God the other day about how to solve the world’s problems. We’ve got to send all the world leaders to play on one of Trump’s golf courses. Then while they’re gone, we replace them with grandmas. Because nobody ever got invaded by a grandma.”

“My wife died five years ago today. She went in the hospital on May 16^th. My sister is a nurse, and when she heard it was meningitis, she told me to prepare myself. She spent 24 days in a coma. I brought a radio with me and I sang to her and read her books all day long. On June 8^th, she woke up from her coma, and all she said was: “I’m worried.” I told her not to worry, and that I’d see her in the morning. But at 4 AM they called me at home and told me she didn’t make it.”

“I’m working on my stamina. I’m trying to walk over every bridge in the city. I walked over six big bridges in the past two weeks, and a lot of smaller bridges too. I thought it would be a good way to become a better person and see a lot of bridges.”

“I fell in love with the first girl I dated. Then one day she told me: “If you were a boy this would be perfect.”

“In 1968, I discovered a very eccentric pronunciation of Hebrew blended with the dialect of Provencal. There was only one man remaining who spoke it, so I met him in Monaco and recorded his voice. And I did it all without Google.”

“What’s your favourite thing about your Mom?” – “She’s better at waking me up than Dad. Dad is way too cheerful in the morning.”

“I want to have my own career. I don’t want to depend on anyone else. But there’s a view in our society that an independent woman doesn’t belong here. She is not ‘one of us’. So if you want to do some things on your own, they expect you to do everything on your own. And that’s difficult. Because wanting to be independent doesn’t mean I want to be alone.” (Karachi, Pakistan)

“I need to start speaking up when people talk down to me. Every time I keep quit, I lose a little more confidence.”

“One beautiful thing about advocating for the poor is that feminist ideals are advanced naturally. In order to fight eviction from their homes, women whose patriarchy has kept them secluded have been allowed to emerge into public life. Their husbands have been forced to choose their homes over their idea of honour. Even within my organization, the patriarchy is being broken down. Energetic young females are beginning to share influence with older male members. When you’re in a tough fight for a common cause, you can’t afford to be choosy about where the best ideas are coming from. (Hunza Valley, Pakistan)