Sometimes stories are a form of self-hypnosis. By reminding myself of something hard I lived through in the past I can often find the strength to get through something I’m dealing with in the present. Usually, once I tell a story I’m done with it. I don’t need to tell it ever again because I got whatever I needed from it.  But lately, I’ve been going over a lot of old memories and stories to remind me that I’ve always been stronger than I think I am. 

I think this would be a really good time for all of us to share some stories of not giving up when we really wanted to. I know we’ve all got one because we’re still here reading this. Even if you don’t want to share one of your own, I’d love for you to come out on Sept 17 and support the folks who do.

I have a handful of tellers I bumped from previous shows that will perform on this night but we’ll definitely have room for folks who want to tell a story about a time when they wanted nothing more than to pack it in but didn’t. I don’t think I’m the only one who needs to hear stories like that right now.

Here are the updated rules and guidelines for telling:

https://freshgroundstories.com/2013/01/22/storytelling-rules-and-guidelines/

I’ll send out a Zoom registration link to everyone in the Meetup group on the day before the show. Feel free to RSVP on Meetup if you want the automatic reminders but I’ll be sending the Zoom link to everyone in the group regardless of your RSVP.

We only have 100 spots in each show (98 actually since me and my assistant each take one spot) so the first 98 people to register for the show will be the only ones who can attend. If you want to tell a story, email me ASAP so I can send you the registration link before I send it to everyone else. 

I’m not creating a Facebook event for this show because it’s easier for me to keep track of everything on Meetup. If you want to get reminders for the show you can join our group here:

https://www.meetup.com/Fresh-Ground-Stories/.

Please write me if you have any questions.
See you on the 17th!

Paul
freshgroundstories@gmail.com

Thank you all for being part of a great show last Thursday! I know there were other things going on that night in the world so I’m grateful to everyone who showed up. 

We heard some beautiful stories. We opened with Behnaz telling us what it’s like rooting for your soccer team in Iran as your country crumbles around you. Then Yousef told us how he’s learned to open up his life to risks and possibilities. Inside the story was a wonderful metaphor about how he always used to choose the thimble when he played Monopoly but now he chooses the iron because it feels a little more dangerous. I love it when a storyteller takes something simple like a Monopoly token and turns it into something bigger and more meaningful. Thank you Yousef for changing how I look at Monopoly boards now.

Tracey told what I think is the quintessential Tracey story. If you know Tracey, you know that stuff just seems to happen to her. Here’s why I think that is. One night, many years ago, The high priest in the desert town of Wackaloon, sacrificed 12 number two pencils in a holy fire that burned for three days and three nights. On the final night, with the embers low and the full moon high in the sky, he spoke these words, “Give unto us a child named Tracey. And may that child grow up to live a most storied life. And may she share those stories over a medium that will randomly and without cause mute people. But let the host unmuteth her so that she will continue to cause a great snorting and giggling amongst the people.” Yes, I’m pretty sure that’s how we came to blessed with Tracey. If you weren’t at the show that night you are very sad that you missed the story of Michael Jackson’s giraffe and the New York Stock Exchange,

After Tracey, Abhishek told one of the sweetest stories we’ve ever had at FGS. It was one of those little stories that I love so much. I don’t mean small in impact, I mean it was full of small moments that ended up being much more than just what happened. It was a story of how a handful of people with places to go and things to do all stopped on the side of a road to rescue a family of ducklings that had fallen through a grate. One of our listeners wrote me the next day to tell me how important it was for him to hear that story. Thank you, Abhishek, for giving us just what we needed that night.

Carin followed Abhishek and once again signed her story while she spoke it. She was a teacher for the hearing impaired for many years and she told us about how one of her difficult students grew up to be a success later on. I wish I had gone back years ago to thank the teachers who went out of their way to help and occasionally forgive me. If you have one of those teachers in your past maybe look them up on Facebook and send them some love. They probably need it right now. Thank you Carin for being one of those teachers.

Henry was next and I’m so glad he’s started coming to our shows. He runs a storytelling show of his own that I encourage everyone to attend (especially if you want to practice your story for bigger shows like The Moth) https://www.meetup.com/North-Seattle-Storytelling-Meetup/.  It takes a lot of time and energy to run shows like ours so I’m happy to give Henry a chance to take off his host hat and tell a story of his own. Henry’s story reminded me that I’m not the only one getting older and that sometimes the grace I need to deal with life is found in a story that I write for others.

Alexia told her second story with us and it was the perfect example of speaking from your scars and not your wounds. One of the things that happens when you speak from your scars is that you don’t traumatize your audience. Our stories are gifts that we give to strangers so it’s important that those gifts don’t come with sharp edges. Alexia waited until she had processed and moved through what it cost her to live that story. Adding humor to a hard story is the best way to let the audience know that they don’t have to worry about you. Alexia did a great job giving us laughs when we needed them. Thank you Alexia. I hope you come back and tell more stories with us.

Paul Barach was our penultimate (I finally get to use that word!) teller and I’m embarrassed to say how much I identified with his story. I have a great job now, but I’ve had a lot of jobs that I hated and didn’t want to have to tell people about when they asked. Paul apparently has a much bigger sense of adventure than I do and actually made up a job that didn’t exist so he’d have something positive to tell people at parties. My favorite part of his story is the heartbreaking last line. I’m not going to spoil it for you in case you hear him tell is somewhere but it’s been three days and I’m still thinking about it. Thank you Paul for doing all the work I know you did on that story. 

Our final teller was my good friend, Bengt Washburn. I first met Bengt in 1998 when I opened for him at the Winner’s Casno in Winnemucca, Nevada. I knew when I drove past the sign on the outskirts of town that read, “City of Paved Streets” that it was going to be a rough weekend. I thought, “Where am I booked next? Village of Flush Toilets?”

The best part of that gig was meeting Bengt and starting a friendship that’s still going strong over 20 years later. Bengt is the only comedian I’ve ever asked to tell a story at FGS. He’s one of the few comics I know who understands the difference between comic storytelling and personal storytelling. His story was about how he ended up leaving the Mormon religion. I have a recording of the story from years ago but he’s never let me share it because of how his parents might feel hearing it. Bengt had to call in from Germany to be with us and I’m absolutely indebted to him for staying up all night to tell that story.

I still want to share something of his with you so here’s one of my favorite bits of his. A few months ago he turned it into a TED talk. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LzMaGqyeYs

If you’re wondering if I made up the part of the sign outside of Winnemucca you can read about it here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winnemucca,_Nevada

Before I let you get back to you Saturday, I want to share some great stuff with you.

1. The Kindle version of my favorite storytelling book is free right now. Yes, FREE! I don’t know why but it’s free until tomorrow (if I’m reading the website correctly.) This is the book I’ve been giving away at the end of each show for over a year now. Now you can get it for free in your Kindle or whatever shiny flat thing you read books on these days. The audio version seems to be free too if you want to put the book in your side holes instead of your front holes.

https://www.amazon.com/Storyworthy-Engage-Persuade-through-Storytelling-ebook/dp/B07CV2PFYJ/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1WHXM6BBZFB5A&dchild=1&keywords=storyworthy+kindle&qid=1598121962&sprefix=storyworthy%2Caps%2C310&sr=8-1

2. Melissa Reeves, one of our regular tellers and also the woman whose been helping me run the last two Zoom shows, is featured in an online show tonight with Matthew Dicks, the guy who wrote the book I just told you to get for free, Buy a ticket and support Melissa and Matthew (cos apparently he ain’t making money on his book this weekend.)

https://cthistsoc.yapsody.com/event/index/587686/speak-up-live-storytelling?fbclid=IwAR3K3iMD4MNNrc8LkJxsl8_dFTvQW3zskaXO_NwD8I-uXd4_TWqbih_DHpU

Melissa is also producing her own show in a couple of weeks called Melanin Stories Matter. I’ve heard some of the stories that are being featured and I know you’ll want to hear them too. This is storytelling being used to make the world a better place. Melissa’s show has stories you won’t hear at FGS and I hope this isn’t the last time she does it.

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/melanin-stories-matter-inaugural-storytelling-event-tickets-116953967465?aff=erelexpmlt

I mentioned at the beginning of our show Thursday that NPR recently asked me to co-host a live show with stories about COVID-19 and racial justice. It was an honor to be asked and I’m proud of the work being done by the six tellers we asked to be on the show. Melissa Reeves is also helping out as story coach for three of the tellers. I don’t have a link for you yet but I do have the text that went out to KNKX supporters a few days ago. I pasted it below. I hope you can join us. Erin Hennessey is producing with Jennifer Wing and I hosting.

Join us for “Pandemic and Protests,” a night of live storytelling brought to you by KNKX and Fresh Ground Stories. This virtual event will feature stories about life during COVID-19 and the fight for racial equality. Hosts KNKX’s Jennifer Wing and Fresh Ground Stories’ Paul Currington will introduce us to six storytellers. 

Their stories include one about a peaceful activist and war veteran who was tear gassed at Seattle’s “Capital Hill Autonomous Zone;” and a story about a Seattle man who took the Harvard Implicit Bias test before, during, and after a Peace Corps assignment in Namibia.

This free Zoom event will take place on September 11th at 7p.m. and is expected to last about an hour. The storytellers are workshopping their pieces right now and we are excited to share them with you. Also thanks to Story Fruition which is helping to coach the storytellers and bring new voices to the stage.  

Thanks again to everyone who continues to show up and support FGS through a really hard time. I’ll keep running this show as long as you keep showing up. 

Stay tuned for some updates to our Rules & Guidelines. I’m making a few changes that will help me run the Zoom shows a little easier.

Stay safe, Wear your masks. Call your mother. Thank a teacher 🙂

Love,

Paul
freshgroundstories@gmail.com

I don’t know why it’s taken me so long to getting around to this theme. It feels like most of my life could be summed up by muttering, “you gotta be kidding me.” Obviously, there are things going on in the world right now that we thought would never happen but the stories we’re looking for are the more personal ones. 

Come tell a story about something you lived through that you still can’t believe actually happened (or didn’t happen.) Did you get married at 17? Divorced at 87? Were you valedictorian at clown college? Maybe you were eaten by a lion once. Whatever it is we’d love to hear the story and what you learned from it.

Here are the rules for telling at FGS: https://freshgroundstories.com/2013/01/22/storytelling-rules-and-guidelines/

I’ll send out a registration link to everyone in the Meetup group on the day before the show. Feel free to RSVP on Meetup if you want the automatic reminders but I’ll be sending the Zoom link to everyone in the group regardless of your RSVP.

We only have 100 spots in each show (98 actually since me and my assistant each take one spot) so the first 98 people to register for the show will be the only ones who can attend. If you want to tell a story, email me ASAP so I can send you the registration link before I send it to everyone else. 

Please write me if you have any questions.
See you on the 20th!

Paul
freshgroundstories@gmail.com

Thanks to everyone who tuned into our Zoom show Thursday. We heard some sweet stories and got to see some great new people who just discovered us. I knew it was going to be a fun night when I saw that Connie and her horse Saruq logged in from Idaho. Once again, she rode down the holler to the neighbor’s house to use their WiFi and catch the show. Even better was that we got to finally meet her neighbors. 

Colleen started us off with a story about how her car dying on I-5 led her to finally selling that car and using only the bus for transportation. I love it when someone turns one of my beliefs upside down. Even though riding the bus takes more time and planning than hopping in your car, Colleen has somehow managed to re-engineer her life to get more done than she ever did before. She started doing more art, telling more stories, and finished a book she’d been working on for 20 years. Maybe we don’t actually need to do all the things we think we need to do. Is it possible that by combining the little trips and completely putting off others that we can find more time to focus on the stuff that really feeds us? It’s a shame that Nathan the Storytelling Bus Driver wasn’t with us Thursday. I bet he would have loved this story.

Cavan, one of our storytellers who has been with us for many years, told his last story for FGS. He’s moving to Michigan this summer. I remember when Cavan first started coming to the show somewhere around 2012 or 2013. At the time, we were both telling stories about recovering from personal tragedies. I was always happy when I saw him throw his name in Mr. Coffee because it meant I was going to find out how he was doing that month. His recovery seemed to be on the same timeline as my own and I often compared each of our little baby steps back to sanity through our stories. Today, years later, we’re both doing well. This show has been around for ten years and I’ve seen many lives change during that time. I don’t know of any other place where I get to see people’s lives unfold over the course of time like I do with FGS. 

Yael, one of our first-timers told a story that had me smiling all the way through. It was about how she learned to speak English and ended up falling in love with all the grammar, idioms, and general wackiness that our language contains. I always bristle when I hear people imply that English is a lesser language because it doesn’t have a word for certain foreign expressions. Sure, German has schadenfreude but do they have a phrase for “stick that in your pipe and smoke it”? Or a word for the subtle dismissiveness of, “Yeah, that’ll be the day.” I think English is just as complex and interesting as any other language. Can you imagine trying to describe to a Belgian what calling someone a dipstick means? I could probably write an entire essay on the history and emotional context of calling someone a long metal rod used to check the oil level of a ‘67 Ford Fairlane. Anyway, I loved hearing Yael talk about the joys of Roget’s Thesaurus. 

Chris told the story of how sumo wrestling may have inadvertently saved her life. I can’t explain all the ins and outs of it here, but I will say that I am now watching way more sumo on YouTube than I was a week ago. One of my favorite things about FGS is hearing how the strangest, most inconsequential things, can lead us to places we never knew we wanted to be.

Behnaz, one of our newest tellers, showed us how learning to put the tragedies of this year into a story has helped her better deal with them. She’s new to storytelling but she already sees the power it gives us. When we take memories and experiences out of our hearts and put them into stories they no longer control us. Turning those moments into stories forces us to come up with an ending. When we decide on the ending, we also decide on the meaning. Storytelling is about making choices. Sometimes we need to be reminded that we actually have choices.

Harjas, in his second story with us, reminded me that sometimes it feels like we all have the same parents, or at least the same mother. He and I grew up on opposite ends of the earth but his story about the pressure of getting good grades and making it into a prestigious college felt very familiar to me. I love that once a month I get reminded of how easy it can be to connect with each other if we just open up about our lives a bit. I know that’s hard to do out there in regular life, but the more we do it with each other on the third Thursday of each month, the easier it gets everywhere else.

Zoe, one of our tellers from Olympia, shared a story about reaching middle age and not having children. She has had, however, a number of dogs and they’ve been the grateful recipients of all the love and nurturing she has to give. Until I heard Zoe’s story, I never really understood why some people call their pets fur babies. Now I think I have a better understanding of it. As a guy, I’m not always conscious of the pressure on women to have children. I can see how hard it might be to have to explain to people that not having children doesn’t mean you’re not loving or nurturing. It just means that it’s not the right choice for you. Luckily, there are lots of people and creatures in the world who need love and attention. I’m glad Zoe has found some good creatures to take care of 🙂

Bill C was a first-time teller with FGS who tuned in from California. He had a story prepared for last month’s show when the theme was drowning and somehow his name didn’t make it into Mr. Coffee. I felt horrible that he had gotten his story together and I had somehow forgotten to put his name on the list. I had to write a very uncomfortable email to him apologizing and guaranteeing him a spot on this month’s show. He was very gracious about it and I was excited to hear his story on Thursday. I think we can all agree that it was well worth the wait. Bill told the best great white shark story we’ve ever had at FGS. Or maybe it was the best mistaken-for-a-seal story we’ve ever had. I’m not saying abalone diving in shark-filled waters is the safest way to get a story but if you do end up doing that, you’ll probably come back with a great one.

Bill Bernat was our final teller and it’s always a joy to watch him perform. He’s one of Seattle’s best tellers and we’re lucky he stops by as often as he does. He runs a free weekly online workshop that I recommend to everyone: https://www.meetup.com/Stay-Awesome-Storytelling-Virtual-Workshop/

We also have our own monthly workshop which is really helpful to anyone wanting feedback on a story: https://www.meetup.com/Fresh-Ground-Stories-Storytelling-Workshop/

Our next show is August 20 at 7pm. The theme is, “things you swore would never happen right up until they did.” I’ll get the invite out as soon as possible.

See you soon 🙂

Paul
freshgroundstories@gmail.com

July’s theme is “Silver Linings – Stories of finding the good in the bad.” It’ll be on July 16, at 7 pm PST.

I had another theme in mind for this show but I think we all need to hear some positive stories right now. I know I do.

Come tell a story about a time in your life when something bad turned out to be good. Did losing your job lead to a better one? Did getting dumped make you available to find someone better? Maybe someone died and you were finally free to become yourself. One day I’ll tell the story of how that last one happened to me. 

Here are the rules for telling at FGS : https://freshgroundstories.com/2013/01/22/storytelling-rules-and-guidelines/

Here are the main rules:

1. Stories have to be true and happened to you
2. You can’t use notes. We want you to tell the story, not recite it.
3. Keep it clean in language and in content (no sex, poop, body functions, etc.)
4. No social commentary. FGS is where we take the energy we usually use to judge others and instead use that energy to find out something about ourselves.
5. Stories have to be under 8 minutes. Practice out loud on friends and time yourself.

I’ll send out a registration link to everyone in the Meetup group on the day before the show. We only have 100 spots (98 actually since me and my assistant each take one spot) so the first 98 people to register for the show will be the only ones who can attend. If you want to tell a story, email me ASAP so I can send you the registration link before I send it to everyone else. 

I tried to get a Zoom account that gave us more than 100 spots but it was much more expensive than I thought it would be. So we’re stuck with 100. Fortunately, we haven’t had more than that sign in to our online shows so we should be ok. Thanks for all the patience and understanding you’ve shown me since we took our shows online. The tech stuff is always hard to deal with even when everything is working fine. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve spent 30 seconds complimenting someone on their story only to find I had myself muted the whole time. So frustrating!

I’m really looking forward to this show. We already have a special guest teller lined up as well as a number of people I had to bump from the last show. Thank you all for supporting everyone connected with FGS. We need each other more than ever now and I’m grateful for the hour or two you grace us with every month.

See you on the 16th

Love,
Paul
freshgroundstories@gmail.com