In Victoria, BC, where I live, spring can be a gentle deceiver
- bringing warm sunny days followed by weeks of rain. When my
children were little, we would welcome those sunny days, enjoying
the chance to be outside much of the day. When those sunny days
were followed by rainy days, we'd be at a loss for things
to do. Recorded stories were a lifesaver during that time. I'd
pop a tape in the tape recorder and we'd be transported
to another world. My children would play on the floor with blocks,
Legos or dolls; or we'd sit together on the couch while
our favorite storyteller, Jay O'Callahan, took us to Artana,
a land of blacksmiths and girls with golden drums or to Super
Bowl Sunday for a battle between the bananas and the maraschino
cherries. You may not have heard of him. He's not a common
household name, but he should be. He's well known in the
storytelling world. I hope, after reading about him, you'll
get to know him as well.
I'll start with his tale of "Herman and Marguerite."
Herman is a worm and Marguerite is a caterpillar. These don't
sound like the most exciting characters for a story. How could
a worm and a caterpillar capture the interest of a 4-year old,
a 10-year-old, or their parents? But they do. Jay brings you into
Herman's world in the first few sentences. Before you know
it you're down under the ground with "Herman the wormin'
and I can't stop my squirmin' and I like to be close
to the ground, boom! Boom!" Marguerite, the caterpillar,
isn't sure she wants to change and become a chrysalis and
then a butterfly. She's afraid. This marvelous story revolves
around Herman and Marguerite's developing friendship and
the change she must undergo.
Another favorite of ours was "The Little Dragon."
Monsieur Le Flute brings us to the land here the little dragon
must save the world from being frozen. Elizabeth helps him realize
his potential so that he can de-ice the sun. We still repeat phrases
from this tale - "Keep your tail up" or "It's
a good game. It's a good game." A delightful story
for ages 4 and up.
Jay's latest recording, "The Spirit of the Great
Auk," recreates Dick Wheeler's 1500-mile kayak voyage
from Newfoundland to Buzzards Bay - following the path of the
now extinct great auk. Dick Wheeler asked Jay to help him tell
the story of his journey so that others could become aware of
his experience and the plight of the fish and fishermen. It's
a powerful tale that had me spell bound when I listened to it
a few months ago.
Jay's other recent recording - "Pouring the Sun"
was written at the request of the town of Bethlehem, PA. Jay worked
for three years to create this story, looking through many photo
albums, listening to many people's stories before he chose
his central character, Ludvika, an immigrant Polish girl who comes
to Bethlehem, PA when she is 18 years old. "I wanted someone
to represent the immigrant journey as well as the steel,"
O'Callahan says. "They are the people who built the
country, and we say that but we don't know it. If we have
stories where we meet them and see them, then for the first time
we have a sense of who built this country and on whose shoulders
we stand." This story made me cry, laugh, and then cry again.
It is very powerful.
Jay, like all good storytellers, uses stories to communicate
the hopes, dreams, beliefs, and the problems of his characters.
His audiences are entranced by his stories. His voices for the
different characters make him a cast of many in one person. I
become so involved in his stories that when they end, I am startled
to find myself back in my life, my everyday world. But I am richer
for the experience.
Jay also gives workshops to help others find their storytelling
voice. (His schedule is on his web site) He, like other storytellers,
encourages and supports people in the business community to find
their story telling voice - including lawyers. While this may
seem a strange thing for lawyers to learn, it's an important
skill that helps them tell their clients' stories well.
Storytelling is used in other fields as well. If you check out
the web site for the Storytelling Center International you can
read about the many ways that people use stories to bridge communication
gaps in the fields of health and healing, conflict prevention
and resolution, leadership management and in work with families
Here is a quote from their site about their work in the conflict
resolution area:
"Storytelling provides a vehicle for helping people, both
children and adults, understand and honor the world in which we
live and the people who live in it.
"Through our work, Storytelling Foundation International
is using storytelling to help build a more harmonious world -
steering us toward a greater mutual understanding, a greater sense
of responsibility, and a greater solidarity through the acceptance
of our differences and a celebration of those things that unite
us."
There's a big storytelling festival held in Jonesboro,
Tennessee every October. This year is the 30th year of the festival
and Jay O'Callahan will be telling stories there. He and
many others will share the tents and stages for a weekend filled
with stories of all kinds from all cultures and peoples. You can
go to the web site for the festival for more information (www.storytellingfestival.net).
Whether or not you attend this storytelling festival, you can
still listen to Jay O'Callahan through his recordings. Check
your local library to see which of his recordings they have and
try them out. Check his web site for a list of all of his titles
from stories for little ones to stories for adults.
I hope you'll invite Jay into your family's life
and let his imagination and incredible storytelling gift enrich
you. You'll find your children saying things like "Give
him a pickle to quiet him down" or jumping in the air and
singing "Raspberries." As Time Magazine said a few
years ago, Jay O'Callahan is a "national treasure."
Marty Layne is the mother of four young adults who have never
gone to school. As a result of helping her children learn at home,
she wrote and published "Learning At Home: A Mother's Guide to
Homeschooling," now in a revised edition, and recorded and produced
a children's music CD "Brighten the Day - songs to celebrate the
seasons." She speaks at homeschooling conferences in Canada and
the U.S. She's working on a book about mothering and burnout.
You can read more about her at www.martylayne.com.
Reprinted from Life Learning Magazine
May/June 2002
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