Before I get to the wrap-up I want to let everyone know there are links to workshops and a Seattle Times article on FGS at the bottom of this email.

Big thanks to everyone who came out last Thursday for the show. We had a great mix of new and regular tellers. As much as I want to get back to our in-person shows, I’m so grateful that we’re now getting new tellers from all over the world thanks to Zoom. 

Tracey started off the show with a story that only she could tell. It included foreign coins, missing toes, humid hair frizzies, a benign tumor, and a class in Taiwan for children with learning disabilities. Somehow she wrapped it all up with a lesson in trusting your spidey sense and the importance of letting go of being right.

Yousaf told us about a time when he spent the last few months at his job trying to get a parental leave policy in place for a coworker who just had a baby. If you’ve ever had a new baby and a job at the same time you know how important parental leave can be. Thank god there are people like Yousaf out there who will take a risk at work for others. It’s not easy convincing management anywhere to give people more paid leave and sometimes it can affect your career just by asking. In Yiddish, we would call Yousaf mensch. In Hebrew, we would call what he a mitzvah. 

Paul B told a story that I’m sure will end up on The Moth or Risk! or some other national podcast. It was about letting go of the guilt he’d been carrying and figuring out how to forgive himself. Paul raised the bar for honesty and vulnerability that night and made me wonder what stories I’ve been afraid to tell.

Bridget’s story had me really wanting to meet her husband one day. He got her a surprise skydiving lesson for her birthday. Who gets someone a skydiving lesson without asking?! I told Bridget afterward that for her husband’s birthday she should get him a cliff diving lesson. If he survives he has to come tell the story.

Behnaz had us all cheering for nerds at the end of her story. It turns out she kind of likes them and may even be one herself. It also turns out that, based on certain data we calculated, plotted, and peer-reviewed during the show, that she might be the 57th smartest person in Iran. You’d have to hear the story to understand that but I have complete confidence in my data. 

Marte’s story of asking her parents for help paying for college when she was 30 turned out to be a tender realization that asking for help was probably the first truly adult thing she had done in her life. Marte doesn’t know this, but the next day my son asked me for help. I’m pretty sure that wouldn’t have happened if he hadn’t been in the audience that night. Thank you, Marte for showing my kid there’s no shame in asking for help.

Rhonda, a first-timer from Tucson, closed the show with a powerful story about watching her daughter work through addiction, and what it felt like to not be able to save her. I know from the comments people posted afterward that Rhonda wasn’t the only one in the room that night who has had to watch someone they love battle addiction. Rhonda, thank you for having the courage to tell that story. I know parts of it are were still raw. You will tell this story again one day and there will be even more people in the audience who need to hear it.

Thanks to everyone who joined us and supported me and the tellers that night. We’ll be back next month with a new theme,  “Home – Stories of leaving, finding, or creating one.”

Email me if you’d like to tell a story on that night. The show is on April 15. I’ll get the invite out as soon as I can. In the meantime, check out the workshops, a book, and an article below.

Here is Paul Barach’s memoir of his pilgrimage through Japan. I have a copy and so should you.

The biweekly workshop with Bill Bernat

https://www.meetup.com/Stay-Awesome-Storytelling-Virtual-Workshop/events/276565190/

Here’s a workshop that’s quickly filling up from our friends at Story Fruition
https://mailchi.mp/e2a73c63c28d/next-storytelling-workshop-is-this-thursday-a-couple-of-spots-left?e=f4e5431327

The monthly FGS workshop

https://www.meetup.com/Fresh-Ground-Stories-Storytelling-Workshop/events/276804127/

An article by Christy Karras at the Seattle Times that features FGS
https://www.seattletimes.com/pacific-nw-magazine/checking-in-with-previous-gather-groups-to-see-how-theyre-coping-after-a-year-of-pandemic-separation/

Paul

Freshgroundstories@gmail.com

Hey, look at this. The Christy Karras at the Seattle Times did a nice follow-up story on us to the one they did back in 2019

https://www.seattletimes.com/pacific-nw-magazine/checking-in-with-previous-gather-groups-to-see-how-theyre-coping-after-a-year-of-pandemic-separation/

Hi Everyone,

Just a quick reminder that our next show is coming up on the 18th, which is a week from this Thursday. We still have a few spots open if you want to tell a story. The theme is “Gut Check – Stories of facing up to something”

https://www.meetup.com/Fresh-Ground-Stories/events/276633095/

Here’s a beautiful story I just heard and want to share with you. 

Tomorrow there’s a Workshop run by one of the best storytellers in Seattle:

https://www.meetup.com/Stay-Awesome-Storytelling-Virtual-Workshop/events/qjlmfsyccfbmb/

This Thursday North Seattle Storytelling is holding their monthly show:

https://www.meetup.com/North-Seattle-Storytelling-Meetup/events/276694657/

If you’ve been coming to FGS for a while you know that we’ve had a number of tellers share their mental health stories at the annual NAMI Washington fundraiser. I shared my own story at the first event in 2017 and was a story coach for them in 2018. It’s a wonderful show and I was proud to be part of it for those first two years.

If any of you have a story about your mental health journey or how caring for someone with mental health issues has affected your life you can apply to be in the show here:

https://www.namiwa.org/index.php/programs/brain-power-chronicles

Below is the text I took directly from the email I received the other day.

EVERYONE HAS A STORY TO TELL

Now in its 5th year, NAMI Washington’s The Brainpower Chronicles: Mental Health Stories, is an evening of real people sharing their real stories about the impact of mental illness on their lives.

WE KNOW THERE ARE MORE STORIES OUT THERE!

We are now casting for our 2021 performance! If you want to share your experience as a person living with a mental health condition, or a family member/caregiver who wants to share your story, please apply by filling out and returning this casting questionnaire.

RECOVERY IS REAL, AND WE’RE GOING TO TALK ABOUT IT IN THE REALEST TERMS!

Director Susan Fee, and Assistant Director Kacie Rahm, both accomplished storytellers, will once again lead this powerful event. If you are chosen for the 6-person cast, you will receive individual and group coaching in a supportive environment with fellow castmates.

NO EXPERIENCE REQUIRED

You do not need to have previous storytelling or performance experience to be considered for the cast! So don’t be shy – submit your 2021 Brainpower Chronicles Questionnaire, and be a part of NAMI Washington shining a spotlight on the intersection of mental health and the arts! Deadline for questionnaires is March 31, 2021.

That’s all for now. Let me know if you’d like to tell a story at our March 18th show. If you can’t make it to a workshop, I’m always available for help over the phone.

See you next week!

Paul
freshgroundstories@gmail.com

Our next show is March 18th at 7 pm. The theme is about facing up to things. Come tell a story about a time when you had to face up to something about yourself. How did you realize it was time to reckon with yourself? Did someone tell you or did you discover it on your own? Was it something you were doing? Something you believed? Something you said long ago that you didn’t realize the consequences of until later? 

Remember to practice out loud on as many people as possible and time yourself when you’re doing it. All stories have to be under 8 minutes. Stories also have to be pretty clean in both language and content. The rest of the rules and guidelines are below:

Storytelling Rules and Guidelines

Workshops are a great way to get feedback on a story you’re working on. Here are two I highly recommend:

https://www.meetup.com/Stay-Awesome-Storytelling-Virtual-Workshop/

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

Both are run by experienced tellers who have told many times at FGS. I’m also available to help on stories. Send me an email and we set up a call.

If you want to tell a story at the show, email me at freshgroundstories@gmail.com as soon as possible so I can get you on the list.

I’ll send out a Zoom registration link to everyone in the Meetup group the Monday before each show. You must register for the show in order to attend. 

After you register, Meetup will send you a link to the actual show. Each link is unique to the person who registered so you won’t be able to share it with anyone. 

If you know someone who wants to attend but isn’t a member of the Meetup group you can share the registration link that I send out. That way they can register and get their own unique link to the show. Sorry if that’s confusing. Email me if you have any questions.

Feel free to RSVP on Meetup if you want their automatic reminders, but I’ll be sending the registration 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. 

Hop to see a bunch of you on the 18th!

Paul
freshgroundstories@gmail.com

Thanks to everyone who came out to the show last Thursday.  We had a great turnout on both sides of the microphone. 

Lance started us off with a story about being asked to take an old man on his final ride in his ’58 Oldsmobile convertible. I hope one day to have a classic car worth taking a final drive in. Taking my final roll through town in a 2010 Prius just wouldn’t be the same.

Megan, our first first-timer of the night, told us about a 10-day motorcycle trip through the Himalayas with her boyfriend. Can love spring forth from the back seat of a motorcycle? Is hypothermia romantic? Yes it can, and yes it is. Although, if you’re driving to the top of the world on a motorcycle, you should probably bring more than a windbreaker.

Beverly, our second first-timer, told a hilarious story about commandeering a Pan-Am flight when the ground delays began to last days. This is what happens when a third-grade teacher from Albany takes matters into her own hands. At least that’s the lesson the New York State Attorney General learned. It runs out that Beverly was Yelp before Yelp was Yelp. It’s amazing what a bunch of people can do armed with stamps and postcards. 

Marte shared a travel story where she ended up working in a bong factory. Ah, the happy-go-lucky days of the 70’s when you could pull over on the side of the road and find a bong factory to work in while you fixed your carpeted Chevy van. One interesting thing we learned from Marte was that if you’re going to pick up a hitchhiker, make sure you pick up one who’s carrying a musical instrument. I’ve never been trapped in a car with a folk singer so I can’t personally vouch for this approach. 

Colleen took us on our second hitchhiking story of the night when she told us about getting picked up by an opera singer in Europe. I don’t know what your best hitchhiking experience is but I bet it doesn’t include being serenaded with an aria from Madame Butterfly. I think in America the best you can hope for is to only have to listen to two hours of Kid Rock. Unless you’re picked up by a folk singer and then it would be 200 verses of This Land Is Your Land.

Behnaz told a recent story about the nervousness she felt helping an old man who fell down on the sidewalk in front of her. In any other year, she wouldn’t have hesitated. But in the early days of Covid what do you do? I think a lot of us are relieved that we haven’t had to choose between social distancing and helping a stranger in need. What we think we’d do and what we actually do can be very different things. I’m glad everything worked out for both Behaz and the old man.

Lisa, our third first-timer, shared another story about meeting strangers. It turns out she and her husband have very different reactions to panhandling. Now I’m wondering if this should be part of my online dating profile. Do you give people your change or do you suddenly start walking faster and avoid eye contact? Lisa’s story reminded me of all the times my son has given money to strangers and the talks we’ve had afterward. It’s amazing how a story about a moment on a sidewalk with a stranger can make you question so many things you believe in.

Bruce told us about the moment his therapist said she couldn’t keep seeing him. As hard as that moment was, it somehow freed him to acknowledge how far he had come and how much stronger he was than he thought. Sometimes we forget the mountains we’ve climbed and the past we’ve overcome. As hard as it is to lose a therapist, it sounds like Bruce got what he needed. Yay for good therapists!

Michael, our final first-timer, shared the story of how much soccer has been a part of his life and what it meant to have to give it up. As a young man, Michael came close to making it to the big leagues until injuries took their toll. Years ago, when he was in Brazil practicing with their national team he drove by the favelas every day and witnessed poverty he had never seen back home in the states. Years later, when he had to accept that his soccer dream was over, he turned his life over to public service. He’s now responsible for helping Washington State develop clean energy solutions. If you see an electric car charger in a parking lot somewhere, there’s a good chance one of Michael’s programs is responsible for that. 

Harjas, our last teller, came to us all the way from India. It was Friday morning there so that means he’s the first person to tell a story from the future. Harjas reminded us that it doesn’t matter how cutting edge your company is if it’s also a toxic workplace. I wish they would teach that in business schools. There are so many times in my life that I’ve wanted to ask a manager, “What’s your Yelp rating as a human being? Is your soul intact or did you sell it at the crossroads for a stake in this company?” Luckily, I work for a great place now and everyone I see on a daily basis gets 5 stars from me. I’m glad Harjas can say the same now.

I did manage to get a good recording so let me know if you told a story and want a copy. I only give audio to the folks to shared stories and it’s only of the story they told. Most of the stories we hear at FGS are pretty personal and that’s why I only share the audio with the person who told the story. 

Our next show is March 18. The theme is “Gut Check – Stories of facing up to something.” I’ll get the official invite out as soon as I can.

Thanks again to everyone who showed up last week. Not only was it a great show, but I’m loving getting to see and talk to everyone before and afterward. The after-show talks are a great way to thank the tellers and learn more about them. 

See you all next week!

Paul
freshgroundstories@gmail.com