Appalachian people, rooted in self-reliance characteristic of a Native American tribe, were kept isolated from America from the start of their early miner-mountaineer days because of their geographical location. Their culture is rooted in nature—their traditional remedies, resourcefulness, crafts and skill are as abundant as their forests.
At the onset of the school year, Wigginton lectured behind his lectern, boring his ninth graders mercilessly. When threats of school suspension only excited his students, he decided to take different approach.
Tossing out the textbooks, he asked if they would be interested in starting a magazine. They were, but were unsure of the magazine’s theme would be.
Wigginton had heard students in his classes mention folks in the community planting crops by the signs of the zodiac and stages of the moon. He brought up the topic, figuring they’d know because it was their own parents and grandparents doing it.
They didn’t.
Curiosity pushed the school kids to their homes, where they could get some answers from family.
It wasn’t long until the students came into class with stories from their elders about curing and smoking hog, catching rattlesnakes, the fine art of makin’ moonshine and the like. The one-time magazine, called the Foxfire project, turned into a quarterly. After a few years, they were bound into books. Today, over 8 million copies exist.
And today, just like 1966, we need to be reminded to spend more time listening to our kin.
The National Day of Listening falls the day after Thanksgiving, but it’s hard to hear over all the Black Friday advertisements.
When the Tupperware is filled with leftovers and the family is still in town, the Day of Listening honors relatives, close ones and people in our community by making time to hear them tell a story.
“Listening to people reminds them that their lives matter,” said David Isay, who founded the day dedicated to listening. Isay also founded StoryCorps, an oral history project that invites people to preserve their stories.
Since 2003, StoryCorps has recorded over 30,000 interviews. They have recording booths set in outfitted Airstreams, which travel the country year-round to capture conversation. Some of the stories on their website are set to animations.
For whatever reason, sometimes listening is associated with passive reception, writes Joseph Beatty, Professor Emeritus in Philosophy at Randolph-Macon College.
“We often expect from the good listener minimalist operations: being present and at our disposal for a stretch of time,” he writes.
But good listening isn’t passive silence; it’s an intellectual and moral virtue we must cultivate.
Bad listeners are usually unable to detach themselves from their own concerns and moods long enough to understand others; instead they’ll project their own selves onto the person they were listening to.
An advantage to the National Day of Listening is that the date doesn’t matter: it can be celebrated any time. Over the winter holidays, break the digestion lull with family or friends. Ask them about something in their past. Record the conversation. Don’t interrupt. Start cultivating a virtue for yourself while preserving a story that belongs to someone you care about.
