STORYTELLING @ The Center 1-9-11

LIVING SOULFULLY WORKSHOP 
"TELLING OUR STORIES"
with Martin Moran

1-9-11 at The Center


In this gathering of the Easton Mountain NYC based community there were about 50 men participating in a workshop on storytelling. Leading it was Martin Moran, B'way actor and author. He began by having us meditate for a few moments on listening and being fully present. We got to explore listening as a group experience. I found this helpful as it calmed my monkey mind and enabled me to ground myself. I became more present. It also distracted me from my typical performance anxiety. And my ego.

Moran then shared this little gem "The road to freedom is paved with compassion." This reminded us to have respect for and to be gentle with each other. It was a perfect opportunity to practice giving up judging myself and judging others--or at least minimize it. As a workshop facilitator, Moran showed strength, wit and gentle understanding. He was easy to watch and enjoy.

Moran then told us a moving story about the stormy relationship he had with his Stepmother . The story was ripe with images. One of the strongest being the moment when Moran was reaching out to wring his Stepmother's neck with rage during a fight with her on the day of his father's funeral. "A force took over my outstretched arms then. They lowered to the table and I gently touched her hand and covered it with mine...there was a long moment.  We stared at each other.  I noticed the bright green of her eyes.  The moment went on and on.  Then she spoke. "I know you lost your Daddy too."  Then we held each other.

During the workshop, we were made aware of certain tools to be used in effective storytelling;

1. Use of dialogue
2. Physical Descriptions of the setting for example, "the air in the room changing"
3. Physical Descriptions of the body "the bright green of her eyes"; how the narrator was feeling; how he perceived others feeling
4. Overall use of images
5. Lay out what happened with the facts KEEP IT SIMPLE
6. Keep it simple and strong
7. Avoid editorializing (unless it comes to dealing with your specific feelings...).

Grandparents Exercise
The group then broke into Smaller groups of five. We all took turns--3 minutes each, telling a story one of our Grandparents, male or female, living or dead. We had to talk about ourselves.

My Turn
At this point Moran asked for volunteers to tell their stories. We had three minutes each. The only rule being that we had to begin and end the story with the same sentence. The first man told his story as his Grandmother-still living, a holocaust survivor. The second man told the story of how he didn't become an architect--it was his coming out story. After he finished and the group comments were done I raised my hand. Moran called on me. "This is going to be really raw" I said. "It's okay" said Moran. I took a deep breath and began...

"As rode the ski lift up to the top of Mount Lemmon, I slit opened the bag and poured out her ashes out..." I didn't perform. I didn't act and thankfully-I didn't cry. I was a man telling the story of his Mother's last days. Three minutes. Done.

Moran thanked me and asked the group to call out some of the images. "Ski lift", "Mt. Lemmon" "Ashes" "Call of the Wild", "The Wizard of Oz". It was then that I cried and knew it was okay to do so. This was a success. This is why I had come today.