StoryCorps has designated November 27, 2009 as a National Day of Listening. “On the day after Thanksgiving, set aside one hour to record a conversation with someone important to you,” a website dedicated to this day recommends. “You can interview anyone you choose: an older relative, a friend, a teacher, or someone from the neighborhood.”

StoryCorps provides a Do-It-Yourself Instruction Guide and suggests questions to use in the interviews. It advises participants to record conversations and invites them to share their experiences with StoryCorps. “Make a yearly tradition of listening to and preserving a loved one’s story,” StoryCorps urges. “The stories you collect will become treasured keepsakes that grow more valuable with each passing generation.”

It’s hard to imagine a more important and precious gift that human beings can give one another than their undivided attention and genuine interest in the stories they have to tell. When that attention promotes storytelling across generations, it is a gift that benefits its recipients for decades to come, particularly when those stories are preserved on video or with voice recordings.

Dennis Sparks’ “Things Observed” photos and essays encourage readers to slow down to deepen their appreciation of aspects of daily life that may sometimes elude awareness and to see familiar things in fresh ways. You can contact him at dennis.sparks@comcast.net.