The Human Voice - Leroy Sievers
by Rob Paterson
Leroy Sievers died this weekend. This picture is one of him blogging for NPR on his cancer. His column on the NP Blog is called “My Cancer“.
I post about Leroy today not just to honor a great journalist and a courageous man but to make a point about voice. The human voice that is central to the relationship world that is struggling to emerge from the transactional world that we mainly inhabit today.
Leroy’s column at NPR was unusual in two ways. First of all it was based on a journalist telling a story about himself - what it was like to to live with and die from a disease that had condemned him. Death in our society is itself one of the great taboos. We can talk of almost anything but this. Secondly Leroy did not allow any distance between his public voice and himself. So he could and did talk of his fears and uncertainties, of the days when he despaired and felt too weak to go on, of the joys of little things and the vital importance of friends and lovers.
For those of us in the “club”, his column was an immense comfort. For we too feel all these things. By bringing his voice to the ’sphere, he gave us ours.
And that my friends is the point. Here is the announcement of his death on the blog. Please have a look at the comments - there are hundreds and hundreds already - to see what I mean by him giving us a voice.
For when it all is stripped away, the great power of the 2.0 world is not to sell us more stuff but to help us regain our humanity.
If you would like to know more about Leroy Sievers and what he meant to many people - NPR have a wonderful tribute page here
I find this photo album especially moving as Leroy unlocks the unpspoken words in others and they alo offer a glimpse of themselves - the face tells so much
