It was a quiet Tuesday morning in my hometown on the edge of the prairie. The sun had just begun to peek over the tops of the trees. The birds were just beginning their morning serenade. Ahhhhh It was a quiet and serene morning in my little world. I had just sat down for a […]
Marinating In The Mediocre
April 25, 2023 by Leave a Comment
It started out innocently enough. Quite pretty, actually. Lovely little messages, dripping down. Falling lightly in our collective lap. Then things changed The wind shifted and the messages increased. Now filling the sky, turning everything in their way into a messy soup. Each message now propelled horizontally like a bullet stream. Making everything indistinguishable, indecipherable […]
Scared: A Storyteller’s Tale
April 22, 2023 by Leave a Comment
It’s lurking in that white piece of paper. Be careful, my friend. The Scared might get you. The Scared is everywhere. And it’s waiting for you For some people, it’s waiting for you on an airplane. The Scared is out there in the audience you’re about to address. If you’re an artist or a storyteller, […]
The Only Story In The World
February 25, 2020 by Leave a Comment
The debate was over what makes up a great story. The crowd filtered into the gym. They took their seats. Wedging themselves into the metal folding chairs that can turn your butt to stone in an instant. A small podium faced them On one side of the podium sat the traditionalists. Joseph Campbell, Keith Browning, […]
To The Dreamkeepers
February 5, 2020 by Leave a Comment
Neil Gaiman is a sage of storytelling while he’s awake. And one of the most interesting people alive. But there’s something you may not know about him. He is also a masterful weaver of whimsical, intensely interesting stories while he’s asleep. But dreams are fleeting So, over the years, his wife, musician Amanda Palmer, has […]
Experiences: Safe Havens For Tribe Action
January 14, 2020 by Leave a Comment
It was an amazing evening. The Robin Hood Foundation had just raised $101,000,000. In one night. At one event. Some people looked at the result and decided the tactic was the secret. It was not The gala itself is not the story. The real story has two parts. First, it’s about all the efforts that […]
The Storyteller’s Promise
December 18, 2019 by Leave a Comment
A Manifesto by Rebecca Solnit. Edited (with apologies to the author) to fit the Art Of It style. Or lack there of. Stories surround us like air. We breathe them in. We breathe them out. The art of being fully conscious in life means seeing the stories and becoming their teller. And not letting them […]
How Movements Spread
December 3, 2019 by Leave a Comment
Once there was a little girl who loved yo-yos. Nancy loved the way they twirled. She loved the tricks they did. She loved the way she could control them with just a flick of her wrist. One Monday morning Another kid brought his yo-yo to school. To him it was just another toy. It was […]
Schizophrenic Advice To Storytellers
November 5, 2019 by Leave a Comment
So many voices in my head. Telling me what to do. Or how to do it. Or how to think about storytelling. The difference between what to think and how to think It’s always been that way. There’s always a battle between the rules and principles. For example, once upon a time there two titans […]
The Enduring Power Of Flat Friends
October 10, 2019 by Leave a Comment
I said goodbye to 333 good friends today. They were always there for me whenever I needed them. They inspired me. They taught me many things. They took me to many places and introduced me to many people and ideas I never would have known without them. But above all They gave me the courage […]
