Thanks to everyone who came out to Roy Street last Thursday and supported all the storytellers. The theme was Fish Out Of Water but you guys made each storyteller feel welcome whether it was their first time onstage or their tenth. Sometimes people apologize to me for coming to the show but not having told a story yet. I always tell them that being a good audience member is just as important as telling a story. We can’t have a show without tellers but those tellers need to know they are welcome and appreciated and you guys always come through for them. Thank you.

Big thanks of course to everyone who told a story: Deborah, Keith, Moriah, Tina, David, Chris, Cathy, Norm, Lleyn, Zoe, Patrick, Sea and Ginger

Many of you asked me after the show if I would post the audio of Cathy’s story about moving from New York to Minnesota. Last night she gave me permission to share it so you can check it out on our Facebook page or blog. It was one of the funniest stories we’ve ever had at FGS and I’m really happy she let me share it with everyone who couldn’t be there in person.

I especially want to thank one of our regulars, Ginger who told a story so delicate and powerful that I’m still thinking about it three days later. It centered around a question someone asked her last year, “Who are you?” What struck me about her story wasn’t that she was finally able to answer that question. It was that I suddenly realized why all her stories go straight into my heart. Ginger’s stories could only be told by someone who knows who she is and is happy with that. Ginger showed me that for every moment I spend working on a story I need to spend another moment working on me. The more I know myself the more honest and revealing I can be onstage. And the more honest I am onstage the more courage I have to be honest with myself.

That’s your Zen storytelling koan for the month. Don’t ask me for answers. I just burned my lips on a cup of green tea that was supposed to help me meditate. Right when I think I got life figured out I end up sticking my nose in a cup of boiling water. The struggle continues.

The recording came out fine so can give the storytellers a copy of their performance if they want it. I only give out the audio to the people who told a story and it’s only the audio of their own story. Most tellers don’t want their personal stories online so that’s why I only give copies to the people who told them.

I’ll be writing up the official invite for next month’s show in the next few days. The theme is Exceeding Yourself – Stories of Personal Mountaintops.

Thanks again to everyone who shared a story, especially our first-timers, Tina, Patrick and Keith. I know how hard it is to get up there and you guys did yourselves proud.

See you on June 25th 🙂

Paul

freshgroundstories@gmail.com

By popular demand I’m posting Cathy’s story about what happens when you send a New Yorker to school in Minnesota. Cathy is one of the funniest people we’ve had at FGS and I’m always happy when she tells me she has a new story for us.

Here’s a great story from Kauni about her substitute teaching gig. I can say with absolute certainty that if she had been my sixth grade teacher I would have had perfect attendance.

Hi Everyone,

One last email to let you know of three great opportunities to listen or tell your own story. The first two are A Guide to Visitors and Drunken Telegraph. We’ve had lot of FGS tellers work with these shows when they want to expand and deepen their stories. Send them an email describing your story to see if it will fit with what they have coming up. Neither show has advertized these themes yet but I talked with the producers and they told me what their next topics were going to be.

Theme: “Don’t Call it a Comeback”

http://www.agtv.org/

Theme: “That’s All Folks! Stories of Endings, Goodbyes and Moving On”. http://www.drunkentelegraph.com/

Below is a meetup that I think would be a good way for people to ease their way into storytelling. It’s more casual than our show and they only have room for a dozen or so people. It’s not a storytelling show but it will give you a chance to speak and share a story without being onstage. It sounded like a good thing so I’m including it here. Below is the description they sent me. Send them an email for more information.

“In the style of Fresh Ground Stories meets Conversation Cafe we’ll be starting a monthly storytelling meet-up that centers around a central theme/question and begins with a brief icebreaker before we give people time to then tell their stories (optional of course). We will end with sharing insights based on what was shared by others. This meet-up offers a chance to meet new people, practice listening, and learn from others by sharing stories of personal experiences.

Listeners and Storytellers welcome. We have room for 12 (this time) and a bigger space to grow into (next month) in our conveniently located Eastside Venue near the Whole Foods in Bellevue. RSVP if you can really make it this first time or another.”

http://www.meetup.com/Sleepless-in-Seattle/events/218887923/

I can’t believe I thought this was going to be an easy topic for me to write about. There are so many ways in which I feel separate from the world I figured I could choose any of them and bang out a quick couple of paragraphs. But you know if you sit with the feeling separation and loneliness long enough you’ll start thinking about the roots of those feelings.

I’ve talked a lot about how my mom was a New York Jew (I’m pretty sure they have their own genus and species) and that she was very much an anomaly in Alaska where I grew up. What I haven’t talked about is the religion she joined in her mid 30s that brought her to Alaska.

Two years before I was born my mother became a member of the Baha’i Faith. She was living in Beverly Hills at the time and making her living as an actress. For some reason she gave up her career in TV and moved to Alaska to be a pioneer for the Baha’is. She met my dad the day she arrived and they were soon married. But that didn’t lessen her zeal for bringing the faith to the Last Frontier.

She spent the rest of her life flying around the state in tiny planes bringing her religion to Aleuts, Inupiats, Athabascans and the occasional white person. Naturally, she would drag me along with her as we knocked on doors, hosted meetings in remote fishing villages and basically coordinated the statewide shock-and-awe treatment for the Alaskan wilderness.

All of this was incredibly embarrassing for me. Even as a kid I knew how annoying we must have been. What made it even weirder was that mom always managed to combine her love of acting with her spirituality. As an icebreaker in these little towns she would often perform one-woman shows that included bits of Shakespeare, a few Greek Tragedies, and then wrap it all up with a monologue from Faust. In 19 years I don’t think she made a single convert. On the positive side she did manage to introduce the people of Alaska to the art of absurdity.

Bringing friends over to the house was equally embarrassing. When David Mason walked by the big photo of Baha’u’llah we had hanging in the living room I told him it was a photo of my grandfather. When Doug Sherwood saw the Arabic writing on the wall in the hallway I told him it was an art project my mom did in college.

I desperately wanted my mom to go back to being Jewish because at least the kids at school knew what Jews were. I wanted to be able to point to Mel Brooks and Joan Rivers and say those are my people. I loved the Jews my mom made me read and watch in the movies. Culturally she was still Jewish. But spiritually she was a Baha’i and it made me hide that part of my life from everyone outside the faith.

As I got older I slowly pulled away from religion in general. Mom died when I was 17 and that was the last thing keeping me connected in any way to organized faith. Aside from a few close friends, I’ve never told anyone how deeply embarrassing it was to knock on people’s doors and talk about religion. I was always a shy kid but this made me go even further into my shell and those feelings of not wanting to bother anyone affect me to this day.

One of the few places I do feel comfortable opening up is at this show. You guys have been so supportive of mine and everyone else’s stories that I’m hoping some of you will share your own experiences of not fitting in.

Tell us about a time when you felt alone and out of place. How did you deal with it? Did you come to terms with being an outsider or did you finally figure out a way to join them?

The rules for stories are below but you know the kind we’re looking for: true stories that happened to you that still mean something to you days, months or years later.

Remember to practice out loud on friends or pets and keep it under 8 minutes.

Rules & Guidelines: https://freshgroundstories.wordpress.com/2013/01/22/storytelling-rules-and-guidelines/

I hope to see you at our next show on Thursday, May 28, 7:00pm at the Roy St Cafe.

Paul

freshgroundstories@gmail.com

PS – I’ll be sending out another email right after this one with three other places for you guys to tell stories. Stay tuned!