Photo Caption: Do you ever feel like someone wrote a book just for you? That’s what reading (or listening on @audible) Talking to Strangers felt like for me.
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I was looking for a book to help me grow a bit around how I communicate with others. Living in Nicaragua, a country in active decolonization where neighbors are, at times, at war with each other, I am looking for ways I can bridge that gap.
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When I saw this book on Audible, and having loved all of Malcolm Gladwell’s work (years ago, I even went to a tech conference because he was the keynote speaker and shared a story about David and Goliath), I just had to listen.
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When I saw it had a @janellemonae track I was in.
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Yikes! I didn’t know what rabbit hole I had entered… Every chapter challenged assumptions I had and touched old wounds, but as if to apply a healing salve to lift the scars or turn them into talismans.
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Deep insight can happen when are willing to face our boogie men.
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Having read Gladwell’s other works, I know he always leads me out of the dark mind boggles of disparate data into the illumination of some greater understanding of ourselves, an elevated soul.
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It felt like I encountered a well-read tour guide walking through my life, like some stone acropolis, pointing out how this structure was shaped by hands and place, a unique moment in time in a continuous global evolution.
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I am so grateful to be alive in this time —to have people with such fortitude, wisdom and intellect to stick to their life’s work to weave a heart-opening masterpiece with skill and beauty.
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Talking To Strangers has ended how I take some interactions at face value. Check it out…
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#talkingtostrangers #malcolmgladwell #goldengatebridge #sayhername #sayhernamesandrabland #sandrabland #sylviaplath #nicalife #suicideawarness
