The human(e) library

This morning I ran per chance into one of the most remarkable examples of empathy that I have seen recently. In a time where pandemic protocol require us to be far from one another the possibilities to meet new people are very few, let alone to get to know them properly. Even if I had not heard about it before, the Human Library project has been running out of Copenhagen, Denmark, for more than twenty years but its goal becomes more necessary than ever in these troubled times because it not only gives you the opportunity to know someone in depth, helping to heal the chasms that have grown to separate us during the lock-down periods, but it explicitly requires investing some time in the process of discovery, which has become a rarity in the age of smart phones and constant connectivity.

My post yesterday made reference to a 90-year old essay that predicted the dullness and the complete apathy that can result from a contented society, where everyone is so focused in enjoying their (in their mind) well-deserved happiness that nobody cared for their neighbors or the society at large. Back then the prediction was a long shot but today it is very frequent to see groups of people huddled together without exchanging a single word, busy as they are in not missing a single joke, story or video from the social networks, pretty much as the philosopher predicted. This behavior is not only anti-social by the lack of care for others, but, compounded with the echo chambers that the social networks create, it condemns to the irrelevance or the oblivion anyone who is not in our own bubble. If everybody in my circles shares my points of view the idea of someone objecting simply becomes unbelievable. But the Human Library comes to help solve this problem.

Photo: Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

The premise of the project is a kind of library where, instead of borrowing a normal book, you borrow a human book, a voluntary person who will tell you about their lives for 30 minutes. The intriguing part is that you do not get to choose the human book, you just take whatever is available. This results in a very surprising voyage, pretty much like these degustation restaurants where you just eat whatever is on offer that day: you will never know what you are getting until you are face to face with your dish... and then it is too late to withdraw.

In the particular case of the human books, the project comes with the additional appeal of giving them "titles" in the same way that people often label one another. Titles like "Drug addict", "Refugee", "Gang member", "Teen mother", which are part of the initial presentation of the human books, allow us to very quickly form for ourselves an idea of what that person will be. However, once you listen to their story you start to realize that they are much more than the label they bear, that a sex addict can also be a very loving father, a gang member helps an elderly person with the house chores, etc. The project runs under the motto "Un-judge someone" because the stories they tell end up humanizing the characters, restoring the richness of their personality and diluting the prejudice that most of us have for those label in negative terms, allowing them to receive the humane treatment that they deserve.

The concept sounds very promising, but I am just writing from second hand reports. Luckily, they are offering an online event over the weekend for which I have already signed up. Let us hope that I get a chance to take part, and I will tell you about the experience in a few days. In the meantime, please take the opportunity to look around you and see if you can find new people for whom you can show some care. Janitors, bus drivers, cashiers, are very frequently overseen and tend to lock themselves in an isolation bubble to avoid the damage by indifference. Still, if we smile at the lady in the bakery as we get the bag of buns, she is bound to realize it and smile us back. It would not be like reading the whole book, but even just browsing can make people feel better. I will keep you posted with the results. Have a nice evening.