Oww!
Linda and I are on vacation at the van der Eb's beautiful Harborview
Farm, at Orcutt's Harbor, Brooksville, Maine, when I get a pain
in my upper back. I can't sit without excruciating pain. I spend
the vacation lying on the grass looking at seagulls. Linda and
I walk one day and after ten steps the pain is such I can't go
on. September comes and, pain not withstanding, time to go on
the road.
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Joy Steiner |
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Mars In Idaho
Joy Steiner, who is incandescent, greets me at the airport. I love Idaho. After
one evening performance, Joy drives me out into the desert to see the planet
Mars at the observatory. Mars is at its closest tonight. The observatory is
down a dark path and there are no buildings, no cars, nothing but brush and
boulders. The observatory is closed. All is silent. Not just dark. Black. Still.
We hear the voice of night. Maybe we' re on Mars.
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Jim May |
Jim May, Mythic Buffalo
The Illinois Storytelling Festival. Jim May's 20th as artistic director. A group
of us called the Blue Mountain Buddies have gone on a storytelling retreat for
thirteen years. We are performing at the Illinois Festival to honor Jim. Jim
is a mythical buffalo. His mind and heart thunder through the universe. Thursday
night before we all go off to hear David Holt give a great performance, Jim
rushs into the kitchen of the hotel for a piece of cheese. "You need to
eat supper," I say. "What's eating at a time like this," Jim
says and is off with a sliver of cheese.
"Herniated" -- What An Awful Word
I'm back home long enough for the neurosurgeon to say, "You
have a herniated disc in your neck. That's causing your arm pain.
The pain will become so great you'll want to have an operation."
"To operate I might have to go in through your throat,"
the neurosurgeon says. That's it. I don't want an operation. I
pray, go to acupuncture. I do cranial-sacral work with Holly Dolben.
She's terrific.
I read Simone Weil who says, "Whenever we have some pain
to endure, we can say to ourselves that it is the universe, the
order and beauty of the world, and the obedience of creation to
God which are entering our body. After that how can we fail to
bless with tenderest gratitude the Love which sends us this Gift."
Where'd That Herniated Disc Come From Anyhow?
I dread the plane ride to California because sitting up is so
painful. I'm lucky and get an exit row. On the plane I read a
book my friend, Barbara Wall, gave me. "Healing Back Pain"
by John Sarno. Dr. Sarno says some back pain, including a herniated
disc, can be caused by emotional trauma, usually repressed anger.
Sarno says just knowing the cause is psychological is enough to
start the healing process. Two to six weeks he says. I know I
got angry on vacation and kept it under wraps. There is hope!
Stella Adler Strides The Platform
I perform for Ann Buxie's Tales by the Sea in Malibu Beach, California,
then give a weekend workshop at Wanna Zinsmaster's in Los Angeles.
Wanna has made an art of life. Her condominium is filled with
art, giant balls, interesting books, and musical instruments.
Saturday night it's Karen Rae Kraut's turn to tell to the group.
Karen Rae sweeps into the living room. She seems to grow as she
enters. "I am Stella Adler," Karen Rae announces. "I
will be your drama teacher for three years. If you want to perform
on the platform you must have size. Size!" Karen Rae Kraut
has summoned up a character so large the room rings with her energy.
We are riveted. "You must use language," Karen Rae goes
on as Stella Adler. "We don't have language in America. That's
why we resort to the method. We need to bend and groan because
we don't have language! With Shakespeare the language does the
work." An electric moment.
Out of the Ashes of Hiroshima Comes Hope
Central Michigan University hosts its first storytelling festival.
Fortunately they have expert advice of a wonderful storyteller
and amazing person, Sheila Dailey Carroll.
I perform the "Pill Hill Quartet" to a good audience
of 450. After me comes Eth-Noh-Tec, Robert Kituchi-Yngojo and
Nancy Wang. They tell three charming folk tales. They move with
the grace of dancers. In their fourth and last story, "Takashi's
Dream," the mood changes. It is about a survivor of the Hiroshima
bomb blast, a hibakusha. Robert becomes Takashi Tanemori, still
bitter forty years after the Hiroshima atomic bomb blast and bent
on revenge. Takashi holds an imaginary steering wheel and is driving
over the San Francisco Bay bridge. Suddenly, in our imaginations,
we are standing in the ashes of Hiroshima. Nancy steps up on a
box and sings America the Beautiful. Takashi stops his car and
is captivated by the beauty of a butterfly.
Takashi is changed by the butterfly and forgiveness begins. The whole performance
is stunning and beautiful. NancyENTC@aol.com
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| Robert Kituchi-Yngojo and Nancy Wang. |
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The Shoe Box
The next morning I rise early to give a nine a.m. workshop as
part of the Central Michigan Storytelling Festival. Two angels,
Karl and Ann Zinn, who have helped me out innumerable times, drive
me through the dark, silent streets to a downtown breakfast spot.
Standing in the dark outside the breakfast cafe is another friend,
CMU biology professor Gil Starks. He has a shoe box in hand. The
restaurant is jammed. About forty people and only one waitress
and one cook. We order but it will be a long wait. "I'm starved,"
I say. Gil opens the shoe box. There are bowls of oatmeal inside.
"Steel cut oats," Gil says. We eat. Who cares if it's
crowded.
On Wisconsin
I'm performing at "Caring for the Caregiver" in Eau
Claire. It's run by David Schifeling, a surgeon who works with
cancer patients. He welcomes the arts in the healing process.
Ah, science you have a heart.
It's ironic that this has been the most painful and yet one of
the happiest times of my life. I've mended.
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Laura O'Callahan, who received her masters at Gallaudet University with highest
honors, is now a freelance interpreter living in Natick, Massachusetts. In Laura's
free time, she is busy as an artist. Laura and Jay have worked together at the
Wang Center in Boston, at the Illinois Storytelling Festival, and of course
Laura illustrated HERMAN AND MARGUERITE. Laura's email is: Lauraeocallahan@hotmail.com
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Laura O’Callahan interpreting
at
the Illinois Storytelling Festival |
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Ted O'Callahan, my son, has been leading National Outdoor Leadership School
expeditions (NOLS) all over the world for years. He is pictured above with friends
in an ice tunnel on a Patagonian glacier. Ted's full text is available on the
website, www.ocallahan.com
We were three days hike from the Caratera Autral -- the dirt
road that keeps pushing further and further into Patagonia. We
are making our way up the Valle Leones to the ice fields that
feed the Leones River. Tonight we have come on a campo. The ranch
sits on a flat just below a steep crooked ridgeline, dense with
trees. The grass is brilliant green and clipped short by sheep
and cows. Gorgeous trees are scattered about. It is a fairy land.
We have been invited for dinner. Four of us head over, leaving
the others on their own so as not to overwhelm or take advantage
of the generous invitation--18 unannounced is too much.
The group that crosses to the house includes Mauricio, a Chilean,
from Patagonia, familiar with both campo and town life; KG, a
Kenyan who has led expeditions all around the world; Sarah, a
New Englander who has transplanted to Wyoming; and me, a New Englander
who came to Patagonia first 11 years ago as a student and now
returns to lead.
The house has a low wooden fence but cows and sheep are free
to wander in the back door. Jorge and Sandra Washington are there
to welcome us. They have lived here for two years. They met when
Jorge returned from several years of being a shepherd and ranch
hand in Idaho. Sandra grew up in Coyhaique, much of her family
is still there. Jorge's father lives a couple days down the valley.
They are so obviously happy together it gives the campo a bit
of its fairy tale quality.
Decorations in the Compo
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Sandra and Jorge Washington on
their ranch in Patagonia. |
We are brought into the house through a long low room that is essentially an
attached shed. It is stacked high with firewood and being dark and cool seems
like it would be a useful refrigerator much of the year. The main room is a
simple square with counter space and some shelves in one corner, a table in
the opposite corner and the real center of the room is a stove with benches
around it. Around the top edge of the wall there are images from what must have
been a wildlife calendar that have been cut apart to maximize decorating potential.
KG explains which type of rhino or elephant or crocodile is in each picture.
Jorge serves us maté, a traditional tea drunk from a
gourd through a metal straw. Dinner is what they would have had
if we hadn't arrived: a reheated tray of mutton, tomato salad,
and homemade rolls. They eat what they have grown.
My not eating meat is a marvel accepted graciously, and balanced
well by Sarah, Mauricio, and especially KG being ecstatic to get
meat--something they miss even just three days into the expedition.
We tell stories all around--Jorge explaining the US to Mauricio
better than any of us have managed yet. KG telling stories from
his previous visits to Patagonia, describing his visits to tiny
towns where he became a celebrity simply for being the only black
person any of the residents had ever seen. Jorge and Sandra tell
of a mountain lion that has been attacking the cattle, and of
preparing for the long winter. When the winter comes, there are
times when they don't see anyone for months at a time. The radio
only gets reception at night.
Every Story Becomes a Communal Effort
All our talking is done by sharing words around--no one person
can manage enough words in both English and Spanish to say everything
they might want. Every story becomes a communal effort. While
the level of fluency around the table isn't that high the feeling
is extraordinary. Something can happen when people have spent
extended time in isolated places, each person comes to be understood
as precious. And despite giving so much food and drink Sandra
and Jorge make us feel we are the ones being generous. And to
see KG and Mauricio be such gracious guests makes it obvious there
is quite a bit of skill and learning to doing it truly well. That
and pure pleasure in the process. So though it is simple--tea,
talk, dinner and though there isn't any one story that will stand
out forever, for a few hours we have no desires beyond what is
happening in the room.
I don't know Mauricio, KG, Sarah, Sandra, or Jorge all that well.
I get a wonderful bright glimpse of them in that evening. And
I love the thought that like the radio messages, the threads of
our travels knot together for a moment and will be something simple
and right gently shaping who we are and where we go.
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Thirty-five years! Linda's amazing. She smiles, laughs, cries.
She is as steady as the earth and has the strength of a lion.
Linda, Missouri born, finished Oberlin College and debated which
coast to go to. Thank goodness she decided on the east coast.
She came and got her masters degree at Harvard and began teaching
in Newton, a Boston suburb.
In 1967, I was teaching in Boston and acting in an amateur production of A
Thousand Clowns. My leading lady said that she wanted me to meet a lovely woman
from St. Louis. So my leading lady gave a party and I brought a date. My hostess
drew me aside and said, "I'm having another party. Don't bring a date!"
At the next party I came alone and met Linda McManus and fell in love with her
great blue eyes. In a matter of months I asked her to marry me and was so stunned
when she said yes I didn't know what to say. Now, thirty-five years later I
know what to say. "Hooray!"
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| Thank goodness she came East. |
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Two people I greatly admire are Bruce and Carol Cowan. They live in Nantucket
and run Nantucket Harbor Cruises. They’re dear and longtime friends. Unless
you’re wealthy, you need imagination and pluck to live on Nantucket. They
have plenty of both and if you get there you must take a harbor cruise on the
Anna W II.
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Bruce Cowan and Carol Cowan
of Nantucket Harbor Cruises. |
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I had a wonderful time performing with John Langstaff at “A
Sunday Afternoon of Songs and Story” last November. I waited
twenty years to do that concert with John. I can’t wait
to do more.
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| John Langstaff gets everyone singing. |
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Great and moving” – drama critic Richard Huntington
of the Buffalo News said of “Pouring the Sun” and
The Pill Hill Stories. Eight shows a week for four weeks. Phew!
The 650 seat Studio Arena is a marvel. I loved it all.
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*Andrea Lovett's, CD, FOLKTALES FROM THE FOREST, crouches and
leaps like a tiger. Or a frog. Andrea's stories are full of surprise,
charm and fun. In one of her stories, she's joined by Bob Reiser,
also one of the funniest storytellers I've every heard. If you
and the family are headed somewhere, take Andrea along. love2tell2@aol.com
*Lani Peterson's CD, STORIES FROM WITHIN, is superb. Lani's first
story is about her journey from psychotherapist to storyteller.
Her stories are poetic and beautifully told. The story about her
post college journey to the hometown of Charles Dickens is exquisite.
Lani@Leadershipstories.com
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| Carol Burnes |
*Carol Burnes' SUDDENLY SINGLE at the King's Head Theatre in
London got rave reviews. Burnes weaves poetry and storytelling
into a brilliant performance. "It's moving, brave and wonderfully
funny." - The London Times. Carol_Burnes@worldnet.att.net
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| Marni Gillard |
*I am so excited about Marni Gillard's nearly-completed book
TELL YOUR WAY HOME that I have to tell you about it now. It is
a book about making art from our traumatic and triumphant memories.
We can all do this. This book, by a wise woman, will help in the
process. This book is for everyone. I hope it's translated into
forty languages.
marnigillard@earthlink.net
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