What a night of amazing coincidences we had last Thursday! Two out-of-town tellers dropped by the show that night and knocked me out with their stories. Another teller got up and told a story about a resentment he had against someone that echoed one of the most powerful moments in my life.
How did this happen on a cold rainy night on Queen Anne? I have no idea. Storytelling is magic. That’s the only way I can explain it.
Chris started off the night with a story of what it takes to run your life when you don’t have a job to get you out of bed every morning. Apparently, life in retirement is made up of apps, alarms, calendars, planners, and post-it notes all designed to get you off the couch and into the world. Did you know there’s a setting on your Fitbit that pings if you haven’t moved in three hours? This is what life is now. We need an app to remind us to stop staring at other apps. Thank you, Chris, for letting me know I’m not the only one struggling to live a fully engaged life in the face of the internet and cable TV.
Next up was Gretchen with a story of moving across the country to Seattle for a girlfriend and what happened when they broke up six months later. Turns out that sometimes your friends know what’s best for you when you don’t. I need to send Larry and John a thank you card who convinced her over a tear-filled Christmas that she could stay in Seattle and start over. She didn’t need her ex and she didn’t need to move back to Minnesota to build a new and better life for herself.
Brian followed Gretchen with a story about when he and his family moved from the Midwest to a small town in North Louisiana in 1971. Despite being a bookworm, he had a lot of fun growing up in this strange, new town in the middle of nowhere. As the story progressed, I remembered one of my favorite bits from comedian Bill Hicks where he’s sitting at the counter in a Waffle House reading a book when some guy looks over and says, “Well boys, looks like we got ourselves a reader.”
When Brian got to the part of the story when he was about to tell
us what book he stumbled across in Gibson’s department store that changed his life, I tried to guess which one it was. He’s too old for Harry Potter so…A Catcher in the Rye? To Kill a Mockingbird? The Joys of Sex?
I’d love to tell you what book it was but I want you to feel bad that you missed the show. Imagine how your life might have changed If you’d come to the show, heard about that book, went out and bought it, then the book changed your life.
Are you sad now that you missed the show? Here is my offer to you. The first person who missed this show and writes me at freshgroundstories at gmail dot com and says they will tell a story at our January show will get the 40-year-old copy of the book I found on eBay that changed Brian’s life. How can you pass up this deal??
I was excited to see Todd up next because he told a story at our
last show that I’ve been thinking about ever since. I was curious to find out more about him in his next story. And you know what? He did it again. Todd, brother, are you reading my diary? He told a beautiful story about how he worked through some big resentments he had with a guy at work who done him wrong. In just a few lines in the middle of his story, Todd brought me back to one day in 2015 when I saw an old flame from across a conference room the memories hit me so hard I ran out to the parking lot, jumped in my car, and drove to the next town over trying to escape the past.
When I got to that next town, all I could think to do was sit under a tree outside a monastery repeating one phrase over and over, “Send her love and wish her well. Send her love and wish her well.” All the Zoloft and Lorazepam in the world couldn’t touch that grief. Silently wishing her the best life possible was the only thing that stopped the shaking and brought me back to the present.
I hope everyone who comes to our show hears a story that brings them back to a moment like that. Knowing Todd had to wish someone who hurt him a beautiful life in order to get his own life back makes me feel a little better. And a lot less alone.
Next up was David who came all the way from Port Townsend to tell the story of tagging baby seals on St. George Island in the Bering Sea. And once again I was almost knocked out of my chair. David had no idea that I was born on St. Paul Island just a few miles across the choppy sea from St. George. David’s description of the Pribilof Islands was exactly as I remember it from my trip back was I was 10. I’ve never met a single person outside Alaska who has ever heard of St. Paul or St. George, much less been there. How in the world did David from Port Townsend know to walk into this show on Queen Anne and tell a story about tagging seals??
I must have been in a weird state after David’s story because when I walked back up to the mic I asked if anyone had gotten inspired during the show and would like to tell a story. A woman in the second row raised her hand, got up, and told a great story about meeting a stranger on the quad of her college who inspired her to live out her dream of becoming a pilot.
I won’t tell you the big twist that came at the end but she did end up becoming a pilot. A bush pilot. In Alaska. When I asked her jokingly if she knew one of my high school friends from 40 years ago she said, “Yes! I totally know that guy!”
How was this happening? What was going on that night? How did a woman from Alaska, in town for just a few days, wander into our show on Queen Anne and tell a story about becoming a bush pilot and knowing one of my oldest friends? Storytelling is magic, is all I can figure.
Our last teller, Saloni, told the perfect story to close the evening. She took us on a journey from her first storytelling event at a Moth in San Francisco, to finding out something about her boyfriend that she didn’t want to know, to finding love in Seattle with a man who loves her stories as much as we do. Thank you, Saloni, for jumping in and closing the show when you weren’t even planning on telling that night. If we don’t see her again for a few months it’s cos she’s head over heels for a lucky guy on the eastside.
Thanks again to everyone who came out on a rainy night to listen to stories and share some of your own. Our next show is on January 16. The theme is “Don’t Tell – Stories about secrets.” I’ll get the invite out as soon as I can.
In the meantime, the Chabad where we do our show is holding its annual fundraiser. They’re the only ones who offered us a place for our show after the Olive Way Starbucks shut down. Without them, we’d still be on Zoom. Blech. Let’s never go back to Zoom.
Here’s the link if you’d like to make a donation:
If you’re working on a story and would like some feedback, check out our free online monthly workshop. It’s a great place to work on stories and meet other people doing the same. The next one is January 5.
Happy holidays, everyone
Paul
Freshgroundstories at gmail dot com
Fresh Ground Stories 