Stories galore

Five of the participants in the storytelling workshop spun their yarns to a large appreciative audience at Deepwater Theatre this evening. When I say the crowd was large, I am not kidding. I am not sure how many people were there, but we put out every single available chair in the entire place, and there were folks sitting in all of them. It was standing room only in the back, and a handful of people even sat on the floor!

It's fascinating to me, this seemingly universal interest in and hunger for an ancient art which is no longer practiced nearly as frequently as in decades and generations past. I think that people like and need the personal connection of story, as a way to escape and break from the constant electronic communication with which we (in the American culture anyway) are bombarded daily.

Okay, so that's my high falutin' theory on why people love stories. The more down to earth thought is that most folks like to laugh, and good stories include doses of "universal human experience" type humor which is wonderfully enjoyable: the "laugh at myself and my foibles...and then learn and move on" type, which is offensive to no one and acessible to everyone. There was plenty of that shared this evening and, once again - as at the morning porch talk yesterday - I looked around the audience and saw the smiles.

Stories are good. Tell yours!