Hello beautiful FGS’ers,
I hope you’re enjoying the heat and not staining your car seats with sunscreen like me. If you’re as pale as I am, youe SPF should match the temperature. That means I’m up to SPF 82 today. NASA says anything over 100 and I can get an Airbnb on the hot side of Mercury.
A couple weeks ago one of our tellers was on The Moth podcast telling one of my all-time favorite stories. Sam Blackman is a treasure and we are blessed that we get to see him tell live in Seattle. His story starts at 29:30.
If you don’t want to scroll through the podcast, here’s the solo video:
Last month, I mentioned on stage that someone once asked me why I told stories. I was so surprised at the question, I couldn’t come up with a good answer. She may as well have asked me why I breathe or pick my nose. The answer to all three is that it’s more painful not to.
Well, that’s the existential answer. The less spiritual answer is that telling stories helps me explain me to myself. It helps me figure out how I got to where I am and gives me an idea of where I need to go.
It also helps me connect with others. When people see you share stories from your life, it makes it ok for them to do that too. When I tell a story about failing at something, it makes it ok for people around me to admit their own failures. When I tell a story about something I did that I’m not proud of, people always come up to me afterward and tell me they did the same thing but never told anyone. I told a quick story in a meeting at work once about standing in line forever at Costco to refill my Zoloft. Afterward, one of the people in the meeting came up to me and said, “Are you really on Zoloft? Does it work? I’ve been scared to talk to my doctor about it.” I don’t know if she ever talked to her doctor about it, but I know she left work that day feeling a little better about herself.
In this month’s invite, I told a story about yelling at someone in public. I had a lot of mixed feelings about that moment until I decided to turn it into a story. Figuring out how to tell the story, forced me to dig down and examine all the things that led up to that moment in 2018 and why it all came to a head in a food court in Brooklyn.
Working out why I did something makes me a better person, or at least a slightly more humble one. That’s why I often choose themes for the show that encourage people to be more reflective and honest with themselves. A lot of times, those turn out to be the funnest stories of the night and that’s always a nice bonus. You gotta reflect to connect. That’s how I feel about stories and FGS in general.
If you’re thinking about telling a story but stuck on how to work it out, our free monthly online workshop is a great place to get feedback and meet some really cool people.
I’m also available to talk on the phone if you want some one-on-one help. Working with someone on a story is always the best part of my day so don’t be shy about writing me to set up a call. Write me direction at freshgroundstories@gmail.com and we can work out a day and time (Meetup almost never sends me replies to emails, so you’ll have to write me directly)
That’s all for now. Enjoy Sam’s story. I hope to see you at our next show on August 20 at the Swedish Club (home of 109 spaces of free parking!)
Paul
freshgroundstories@gmail.com
Fresh Ground Stories 