I’ve had a lot of adventures in my life and almost all of them have been with friends. Some of them were people who became friends during the adventure and some of them became ex-friends after the adventure. Have you ever been friends with someone who was completely unlike you? My stepmother Betty used to call those couples Mutt and Jeff.
When I was 20, my buddy Chuck yelled at a guy who was about to punch me in the face, “Nobody hits my friends!” Two seconds later that guy was on the ground looking for his teeth. I haven’t seen Chuck since I moved to Washington in 1995 but he’s one of the people I hope is at my funeral.
My buddy Mark and I spend as much time laughing about old adventures as we do trying to find new ones. I remember feeling terrible as I helped him move out of his house after his wife left him. A month later, my long-term girlfriend left me. For the next six months, I went over to Mark’s dingy apartment twice a week to watch The Wire. That’s how we both recovered from breakups we never thought would happen.
If I find myself on some adventure without a friend I guarantee you I’ll be calling one as soon as it’s over to tell them about it. And adventure is only half over if you haven’t told anyone about it. Sometimes I think a friendship isn’t over until you’ve talked about it with another friend.
March’s theme is “Connections – Stories of friendship.” Come tell a story about making a friend, losing a friend, relying on a friend, an adventure with friends, or anything else around friends or friendship.
Remember to practice your story out loud on as many people as possible and time yourself when you’re doing it. Please don’t get onstage if you haven’t practiced your story. The audience is giving you their time and attention. It’s not fair to them if you get up there and try to wing it.
All stories have to be under 8 minutes. Stories can be as short as you want but not over 8 minutes. Stories also have to be clean in both language and content. Send me an email if you have any questions about that.
The rest of the rules and guidelines are below:
We have a free monthly online workshop that’s a great place to get feedback on your story.
I’m also happy to help anyone with a story they’re working on. Send me an email and we can set up a phone call.
See you on Thursday, March 20, at 7 pm, at the Chabad of Queen Anne – Magnolia. 1825 Queen Anne Ave N, Seattle, WA 98109 (Remember, no non-kosher food in the building)
Paul
Freshgroundstories at gmail dot com
Fresh Ground Stories 