FIVE REASONS WHY I LIKE STORYTELLING

REASON 2: YOU MEET INTERESTING PEOPLE

People have always fascinated me. Everyone has a story to tell and over the years I’ve heard many. All the way from the totally weird, gross and disgusting to exhilarating, marvelous and inspiring tales from folks I don’t really know at all to my friends and family with whom I share intimate moments.

Maybe that’s the main reason I became a counsellor, educator and consultant. I worked hard at it for over forty-three years. When my kids were teenagers, they often warned their friends who would meet me for the first time, ‘Watch out when you meet my Dad. The next thing you know, you’ll be telling him stuff that you’d never tell anyone else!’  Being a good listener, someone who listens with both head and heart, thankfully just comes naturally to me. And I treasure many of the personal life stories that were given to me over the years. It’s from that vast storehouse of shared stories that I create most of the ones that I tell at storytelling gatherings.

Attending these events, both as a listener and a teller, has introduced me to many others who share a strong interest in the art of storytelling. It always surprises me when, introduced through the shared experience of listening to a well told story, a person I have never met before, invites me into their private world of experiences, thoughts and opinions. Tragic stuff. Totally funny stuff. Odd stuff. Deeply felt experiences that are often unfamiliar to me personally but through what is chosen to be shared, I begin to gain a new appreciation, a helpful understanding that I would likely have never had if not for this moment with them.

In my limited but growing experience, the men and women who enjoy telling tales and do it as often as they can in front of public audiences, equally enjoy talking about their own journeys of self-discovery through telling and listening. While each story is unique, they all share the qualities of passion and excitement, sometimes wonder and often a burning desire to have meaningful, unspoken conversations with those that hear their stories.

This past summer, I spent a leisurely afternoon in the cool shade of an aging barn sharing favourite tales with tellers from slightly afar, most of whom I had never met before. As often happens, each teller preceded his or her story with why this story was being told and usually, what this story meant to them personally. The glimpse into personality, lifestyle and relationships that these mini-stories revealed intrigued me. During dinner, I moved from person to person, asking about their story or telling them how their tale resonated with me. Even though I was the most novice of tellers in this gathering, some enthusiastically offered encouragement and helpful insights about my stories and performance.

Recently I spent three days immersing myself in the stories being told at the National Storytelling Festival in Jonesborough, Tennessee. In its fortieth year, nearly twelve thousand enthusiastic fans of storytelling made what I can only now call an annual pilgrimage from all over the continent to listen to well told tales from all genres by some of America’s best and beloved tellers.

But it was the listeners from whom I leaned the most. Before or after presentations, spontaneous conversations would begin among strangers. Usually it started with an opinion about the story, the performance or the artist but then quickly moved into the sharing of personal telling and listening experiences.

I remember talking with a recently retired locomotive driver who had been a cop before that. He had stopped me in the street outside the tent about an experience he had as a cop in the mid-west because in the story I told in a Slam competition earlier, a cop character triggered a memory he wanted to share. With noticeable emotion, he told me of growing up in a Home for Boys from an early age. But since retiring a year ago, he was now avidly pursuing storytelling as a retirement activity that someday he hoped to turn into his third career. He shared some incredible stories of the men and women with whom he worked on the railroad and a few of the perils facing crews. I think he will make a compelling and passionate teller.

Or how about my brief conversation with an older woman I judged to be close to eighty sitting behind me in a huge tent? Like me, she was waiting for the next performance to begin. She was in a flamboyant style dress with striking jewelry accessories and an attractive wide brimmed floppy hat. We struck up a conversation and I quickly learned that she herself had been a teller at the Festival for many years but now she came just as a listener. so I hesitantly asked if she was still telling stories. ‘Why, my oh yes, young man. In fact next month I am doing a one woman show that I wrote to explore getting old.’ Her entire being glowed, she sat taller and her blue eyes sparkled with the pleasure and anticipation of it all. A snippet of a marvellous life story only hinted at that had started just with a casual encounter! 

Looking at me intently, she asked how long I had been coming to Jonesborough. I replied that this was my first time and in fact I was telling a story in the Slam competition later in the day. With this news, she smiled and offered me helpful words of encouragement while wishing me well in future storytelling projects. Coming from her, who I sensed was probably a legend among tellers, made me feel as if now I was really becoming part of a much larger community of storytellers that reached well beyond my local group in Ontario. We shook hands warmly just as the performance began. Even now, I find myself thinking about her and wishing I had heard more of her life story that day. I wrote down her first name on a slip of crumpled paper I found in my backpack. I hope that will be enough to track her down and learn more about her life. Maybe there will even be some videos of her telling tales and that would be a special treat for me.

So, the next time you attend a storytelling event, look around you, find someone who you would like to know more about. Then go over, introduce yourself and ask. I guarantee that you will indeed meet an interesting person.

And better still, you will both be richer for the conversation.

To be continued…

Written by Don Herald (A member of Peterborough Storytellers)