Today in acting class my group had to present for our chapter of The Empty Space and then create an activity that would demonstrate the ideas. For the activity we made people get up two at a time and entertain us. If someone in the audience got bored or became a passive observer, the people had to figure out a way to spark our interest again. I just want to say that watching one girl braid another’s hair and ask “What is the most embarrassing thing that has ever happened to you?” and to have that girl ANSWER honestly was far more beautiful and poetic and interesting than most of the theatre I’ve seen in my life. 

I watched Crazy, Stupid, Love tonight and what got me was when a character turned to the other and said: “Will you do me a favor? Will you do me a kindness and ask me something personal about my life?” I want to do this every day. I live for personal conversations. Lets be honest: everyone likes to talk about themselves. And sometimes I just want to listen. I just want to lay down with someone and ask question after question for hours. 

Recently, I’ve been getting closer to a friend and our conversations have turned into a question game. I ask something and then they respond. Immediately we are cutting the layers upon layers of shit that people normally have before you get to the interesting stuff. I don’t want to talk to you about how tired I am or how it sucks that it always rains here. I want to tell people that I am an endless dreamer; that I fall in love quickly and fully and despite the fact that sometimes it leads to hurt, I am proud as hell of it. I want to ask people when was the first moment that they wanted to touch another person gently to show how much they cared. I want to learn about the time you peed your pants in front of the whole third grade or the time that you realized in that exact moment that you were happy without conditions and how much it surprised you. 

Goal: to listen. 

So please everyone, tell me your stories, I’ll tell you mine and we’ll breathe in each others secrets and hurts and joys and maybe, just maybe, it’ll help us feel a little lighter.