Photo Friday: Wisdom of Crowds

I took this photo in 2015 at the offices of Health Union, the parent company of Migraine.com. I was, and still am, intrigued by the artwork of the brain made up by hands. The artwork was created with chalk on a blackboard, with incredible detail and precision. The hands represent working together, which beautifully depicts the quote inscribed in chalk below the image:

The wisdom of crowds is considerably greater than any one person working alone.

Writing could be lonely…if I let it. The best part of chronicling my illness has been sharing the thoughts from my defective brain with others, creating a dialogue. Some of the easiest things to write have been inspired by conversations with my migraine and chronic pain family. There’s beauty in listening to different viewpoints to create a shared message.

The notion that a crowd is louder together than individual voices extends into advocacy. What is it that we all want others to know? How do we want people to react? Why is it important to us? The answer to those questions are different for each person. But as a crowd, or a community, we want others to treat us with compassion, we want to educate, we want more research. There is no better time than now to raise our voices collectively so we can be heard.

My favorite t-shirt.