"A Person Not a Book"

In Denmark, there are libraries where you can borrow a person instead of a book to listen to their life story for 30 minutes.  The aim is to fight against prejudices.  Each person has a title - "unemployed", "refugee", "bipolar", etc.  - but by listening to their story, you realize how much you shouldn't "judge a book by its cover".  This innovative and brilliant project is active in more than 50 countries.  It's called "The Human Library".

____________________________________

It's worth pondering how we label each other and how those labels influence the opinions of others. Just one word about a person can elicit an unintended image.

When I'm writing, I try to stay vigilant about this, because if I am careless, the image evoked in a reader's mind could influence them in ways I have no intention of doing.

And if there was one takeaway from interviewing hundreds of people in my journalism career,  it is that people's complexities resist stereotyping.

Therefore, we all might do a better job of describing people by directly juxtaposing their various contradictions -- at least the ones that that strike us. 

For example: "She doesn't look you in the eye when she talks to you, which can make it seem like she is shy. She looks off in the distance somewhere. But when she is finished, she fixes a piercing gaze straight into your eyes, awaiting your response. At that moment you realize she isn't shy at all, just respectful. Demanding even."

Or: "He comes off as blustery when you first meet him. It's like he carries around a mental checklist of his major accomplishments -- one, two, three -- which are guaranteed to impress you. As you get to know him, however, you realize just how uncertain about himself he really is, and how desperately he would like you to like him. Maybe he tries too hard."

This dialectical approach to description zeros in but leaves room for alternative interpretations.

So I realize that the Danish library project is geared toward a slightly different issue -- making the voices of people accessible despite labels that may conjure pejorative images.

In that context, personally I struggle when presenting my Afghan friends, past and present, to American and European readers. Unless you have been there, and experienced their warmth and vulnerability and strength and ruthlessness first-hand, it is difficult to express in writing.

Especially in English.

Actually, in my lowest moments, I fear that the Afghan experience does not translate linguistically or culturally. I could labor for many, many hours just to compose each sentence of description, only to fail. 

So let me put it directly: Forget what I say. If you would go there and meet them yourself, you would never forget them the rest of your life.

(Thanks to my friend and journalist Bruce Koon for the Denmark lead.)

***

THE HEADLINES:

* Since Covid-19 Hit, Research on Viruses Has Exploded. Is It Safe? (WSJ)

* The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention endorsed COVID-19 booster shots for Americans age 65 and older, nursing home residents, and those aged 50 and older who have risky underlying health conditions. But CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky made an additional recommendation her agency's advisers had rejected: booster shots for people ages 18 and older who are health care workers or who work at jobs with increased risk of being exposed to the coronavirus. [AP, NYT, WP]

* VIDEO: Cargo Ships Back Up Off the California Coast -- A record number of vessels were anchored off the coast of Southern California, waiting to unload cargo. The backlog came amid a surge in demand for imported goods and supply-chain disruptions caused by the coronavirus pandemic. (AP)

* Moderna’s chief expects enough coronavirus vaccine for everyone by next year. Much of the world is still waiting. (WP)

* Biden says COVID booster shots will be free and accessible (Reuters)

* Trapped Afghan Women Fear Retribution Under Taliban Rule (WSJ)

* As the Taliban bars some girls from school, their mothers’ dreams are also shattered (WP)

* VIDEO: Afghanistan’s Health System Is on the ‘Brink of Collapse,’ W.H.O. Says -- Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the W.H.O. director general, warned of an “imminent humanitarian catastrophe” as the country’s health care system struggles with a loss of foreign funding and dwindling supplies. (AP)

* Looming economic crisis overshadows Afghanistan talks at U.N. (WP)

* As Debt Default Looms, Yellen Faces Her Biggest Test Yet -- The Treasury secretary must wade into a standoff between Democrats and Republicans over raising the debt limit. (NYT)

* The Senate Small Business Committee has been unable to vote on the nomination of Dilawar Syed for deputy administrator of the Small Business Administration because Republicans have boycotted the vote. If confirmed, Syed would become the highest-ranking Muslim official in American history. But like other Muslim Americans in public life, he is facing questions from Republicans about his allegiances, stemming from his religious faith. [HuffPost]

*  New York Passes Sweeping Bills to Improve Conditions for Delivery Workers -- A package of legislation from the City Council set minimum pay and working conditions, placing New York at the forefront of regulating a multibillion-dollar industry. (NYT)

* Thunberg joins climate rally in Germany ahead of election (AP)

* Leaders to UN: A warmer world is a more violent one, too (AP)

* Some Species Are Changing Along With the Climate-- Warmer conditions have prompted animals and plants to adopt new habits and evolve new traits: Squid are shrinking, lizards are growing bigger toes and trees are migrating (WSJ)

* World's youth take to the streets again to battle climate change (Reuters)

* The cinematic escape of six prisoners who tunneled out of an Israeli penitentiary earlier this month shone a light on Israel's mass incarceration of Palestinians, one of the many bitter fruits of the conflict. (AP)

* Tens Of Thousands Of Black Women Vanish Each Year. This Website Tells Their Stories (NPR)

* "In Denmark, there are libraries where you can borrow a person instead of a book to listen to their life story for 30 minutes.  The aim is to fight against prejudices.  Each person has a title - "unemployed", "refugee", "bipolar", etc.  - but by listening to their story, you realize how much you shouldn't "judge a book by its cover".  This innovative and brilliant project is active in more than 50 countries.  It's called "The Human Library". (LinkedIn)

* In Aging Japan, Under 75 Is the New ‘Pre-Old’ (WSJ)

* Ancient Footprints Push Back Date of Human Arrival in the Americas -- Human footprints found in New Mexico are about 23,000 years old, a study reported, suggesting that people may have arrived long before the Ice Age’s glaciers melted. (NYT) The first footprints were found in a dry lake bed in White Sands National Park in 2009. (AP)

* NASA's big new telescope could find hints of life on other planets. (NPR)

* Sleeping Beauty's forest is dying. It's not the only climate crisis facing Germany's next chancellor (CNN)

* Long, Loud ‘Umm’ Heralds Beginning Of Sentence (The Onion)