V is for Variety

“Variety is the spice of life.”  William Cowper’s poem “The Task” (1785) contains that line.  And many times variety is the spice of life, until it becomes overwhelming because you may have tried too many different kinds of experiences or your life is too diverse.

 

What is too much for one may be extremely satisfying to another.  When I’m feeling a bit overwhelmed at what is happening in my life, I step back and look at how I arrived at this impasse.  Usually it is my own doing since I have a tendency to say “Yes” more often than “No.”  Case in point: this month of April, 2015.

The first half of the month was doable – I was wearing the normal hats that I do quite often which I’m used to.  Some of my “normal” hats include Dance Partner, Radio Show Host, Rocky Mountain Storytelling Board Member, Program Director for the RMS Conference (May 1 & 2), Chef, Seamstress, Walker, and I added Blogger to that list by joining the A-Z Blogging Challenge.   

It looked like the latter half would be doable as well until I got a phone call and a text.  The first was an invitation to travel to Branson, CO.  (Yes, you read that right – Branson, CO.)  The school (50 students K-12) was having a Literacy Night and needed a speaker.  Since I am a rural area dweller and know first-hand how hard it is to get good people to come a distance, I said, “Yes.”  Storyteller Hat

Then my daughter-in-law texted me with an emergency “Grandma Request” – could I come up and take care of the boys for the end of the week?  Of course I said, “Yes!”  Grandma Hat

So for the past two weeks I have put a number of miles on my car, seen beautiful scenery and animals, traveled some paved back roads and added to my to-do list.  At least I’ve kept myself out of trouble and the weather cooperated.  I have two more weeks of wearing either my Storyteller Hat or my Grandma Hat almost non-stop and then …  Well, we’ll see what I say May 11.

W is for Witches

Witches?  Who are they really?  Why do they have such a bad reputation?  Do they really eat little children? 

Today we will look at one stereotypical witch – Baba Yaga.  Baba Yaga lives in the forests of Russia.  Her home is a hut standing on chicken feet which kneel down when she is home making it easy for her to exit and enter her home, and stand up when she is gone so that no one else can enter.  The hut has the ability to turn 360⁰ in order to welcome her home.  She has a cat and a dog.  Her legs are bony, her teeth are iron.  Supposedly she eats little children.  She flies about in a magic mortar which she steers with the pestle.  She sweeps her tracks away with her broom.  So do NOT venture out into the forest alone!

Where did my knowledge of Baba Yaga come from?  Jack and Jill magazine.  Back in the 1950’s, the children’s magazine ran a series on Baba Yaga which my mother read to my sisters and me.  I was so fascinated by all the magical things that Baba Yaga had in her life, they have stuck with me all these years.

I used this knowledge when I was a librarian.  We were not allowed to tell witch stories for Halloween; so I got around that by using two books – one with the fourth graders and one with the fifth graders to prove the need for research even when writing and illustrating picture books.

The Widow’s Broom by Chris Van Allsburg was my choice for the fourth graders.  We briefly discussed the witch trials in Salem as background for the story.  I love Van Allsburg’s wordsmithing.  If you've never read any of his books, do; they’re worth the effort.

Eric Kimmel’s Baba Yaga was my choice for the fifth graders.  Megan Lloyd is the illustrator of this book.  Ms Lloyd, I’m afraid, did not do her research before making her illustrations.  As you can see from the cover of the book, Baba Yaga is flying on her broom and is perched precariously on a small mortar while waving the pestle in her hand.  And, yes, she‘s pretty high off the ground.  Yet when faced with a stream and a grove of trees she cannot fly over them.  Inconsistencies.  The house on chicken legs has steps leading into it and therefore cannot kneel nor turn in any direction without tearing them off.

I have a Russian friend who is going to give me more insight into the story of Baba Yaga.  And I love Patricia Polacco’s version of Babuska Baba Yaga. 

Witches are not all bad.  Sometimes they just know more, and are more in touch with nature than others; and long ago that was considered, by some men, to be a bad thing.  In some places that is true today.

U is for Unconditional Love

“If you wilt but stay as beautiful as you are today. I will love you forever,” the king told his queen. 

“And who shall judge my beauty?” she inquired of the king.

“Why I shall, of course,” was the reply.

“Will your standards for beauty change as you age?” she asked coquettishly.

“No!” he thundered.

And she wondered if the rewards of queenship were worth what lay ahead.

That passage is not from any story I am familiar with, but it is said in a variety of situations and with a variety of words day after day after day.

Unconditional love does not use the word “If”.  Near on 60 years ago there was a man who showed me what unconditional love for a woman looked like.  My grandparents were making one of their rare visits to our home.  Both Grandma and Grandpa were in the living room with me when Grandma got up and left to go help my mom in the kitchen.  As she left the room, Grandpa turned to me and said, “There goes the most beautiful woman in the world!”

I’d always thought of my grandparents as old, although in the little story above they were probably around the age I am now (and of course I’m not old!).  To my young eyes Grandma did not have any of the attributes the magazine ads and TV touted as beautiful, but in Grandpa’s eyes she was and always had been from the moment he met her, the most beautiful woman in the world.

Their love story was just as beautiful.  They’d never told it to their children, but one winter afternoon in the late 1960’s when two of my cousins and I were exploring the attic with them, the Romantic (Grandpa) told us the story.  We sat still, drinking in the tale we’d never heard before and loving every detail.  It was so much better than the story we’d been hearing all our lives – “I couldn’t teach her math so I had to marry her.”  He told about the “pursuit,” the proposal, the acceptance and the unconditional love.  Ahhhh, yes, that special love that does not fade.  It’s not found by everyone, but when it comes, grab hold with both hands and toss the word “if” from your vocabulary!

T is for Temptation

Janet ventured out one day knowing full well that she was not supposed to go anywhere near Carterhaugh.  She found herself there anyway perhaps because it is tempting to go where one has been forbidden to go.  It was tempting to pluck a sweet smelling rose; so she did.  The young man who appeared tempted her to walk with him.

So many temptations all in one afternoon.  And if you know the story of Janet and Tam Lin (or the ballad), you know not only how tempted she was, but also that he was tempted as well.  Janet was different from the other lassies who made their way either through knowledge or fate to Carterhaugh.  She was a young woman who knew her mind.  She was more curious than afraid.  Janet went of her own free will into the forest with Tam Lin.

Janet proved to be brave when she freed Tam Lin from the faerie spell.  And because she yielded to temptation, she found something so precious she was willing to give her own life to save his.

Temptation finds us all at various points in our lives.  We must judge the merits of the temptation before giving in to it.  Will it give satisfaction for a moment or a life-time?  Is it fleeting like the taste of chocolate cake or life changing as in the case of True Love?  Only we can decide for ourselves, and thus our free will.

Now back to the story.  Janet saved Tam Lin’s life and did not lose her own although she risked it.  Their child had two loving parents because of Janet’s bravery.  Carterhaugh was returned to its rightful heirs, and all turned out for the best.  So one might say with all that temptation going ‘round, a life was saved and two lives were changed and a third life begun and the Fairy Queen lost because of True Love. 

Not all temptations turn out so well, but in Fairy Tales, true love finds its own and proves to have a pull far harder to resist than chocolate cake at midnight.

S is for Sisters

Sisters, ah yes, I know all there is to know about sisters since I have two of my own and a cousin who is more like an older sister than a cousin.  Or do I?  Know all there is to know about sisters – that is?

I chaffed through my childhood while Mom read or told us stories about sisters and how the youngest one was always the prettiest, wittiest, smartest, best all around at everything.  How come it was never the oldest?

Well at least when our cousinly theatre was presented, I played the part of Cinderella.  Well, it was because I was the theatrical type and my sisters and cousin weren’t.  But secretly, deep down, I was so relieved that the oldest could do something beautiful, special, right.

One of my favorite stories as an eldest sister growing up in the 50’s was Snow White and Rose Red.  Why?  Because both sisters were all those wonderful things that seemed in most tales to belong only to the youngest.  Both sisters marry a prince.  

This month it is my turn to choose the book and lead the book discussion for my book club (Broads, Books and Banter).  At Jane Yolen’s suggestion I decided to have members read one of the books in the Fairy Tale series edited by Terri Windling. These novels are remakes of the old fairy tales.  Snow White and Rose Red by Patricia C. Wrede, was one of them.  It is set in medieval England.  The Land of Fairy borders the land where the home of the widow and her two daughters is located.  The novel follows to some degree the Grimm’s tale, but with delightful diversions.

Other novels in the Fairy Tale series include Briar Rose, by Jane Yolen; Tam Lin, by Pamela Dean; Jack the Giant Killer, by Charles de Lint; The Nightingale, by Kara Dalkey; White as Snow, by Tanith Lee; Fitcher’s Brides, by Gregory Frost; The Sun, the Moon and the Stars, by Steven Burst; and Persinette, by Charlotte-Rose de Caumont La Force.  If you haven’t discovered this series of old tales set in more modern times, you’re in for a treat.

R is for Road Trips, Radio and Research

All storytellers go on road trips, but I would be willing to bet that those of us who live in rural areas travel more and more often than our counterparts who live in metro areas.

Sometimes our road trips turn into a story such as the one I used to tie stories together at the National Storytelling Network last July where I was an emcee for one of the Regional Showcases.  Sometimes our road trips can be used for research – places we’d like to come back to, stories we find along the way when we talk with people, stories of places, pictures of small post offices.

And, of course, there’s the radio.  It’s interesting to see what you can find as local radio stations.  For example, I tell stories on two small community radio stations in rural Colorado.  As a storyteller it would delight me to no end to be driving through an area and tune into Stories!  In fact this summer people take to the road for the purpose of vacation, I will be doing a radio show dedicated to Road Trips.

Speaking of Radio – there are other radio stations playing stories out there.  The Rocky Mountain Storytelling Newsletter, of which I am the editor, lists several of them.

Julie Moss is host of "Storytime Radio" which airs on the 1st and 3rd Saturday of each month on KHEN "Community Radio for the Upper Arkansas Valley" from 5:00-6:00 pm, and on the 2nd and 4th Saturday of each month on KRZA "Community Radio for the Upper Rio Grande Valley" from 5:00-600 pm.

 Internet Story Radio opportunities include:

"A World of Storytelling Radio" 

Buck Creacy says, "Give a listen to the world's only 24/7/365 Radio Station dedicated to Storytellers & Storytelling." You can also listen to the station on iTunes radio.  Go to iTunes, click radio, click talk radio, look for "World of Storytelling."
Click & make it a Fave. 

  

The Story Mine hosted by David Bullock airs Sunday Mornings at 8:30 am. Streaming live at KPCW.org David says: We are accepting CD's of good stories at The Story Mine, 285 Starview Drive, Park City, UTah 84098

  

BYU Radio

Originates from the campus of Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. Listeners tune in via Sirius XM satellite radio, channel 143, online at byuradio.org, and on iTunes. The Apple Seed, hosted by Sam Payne, features Tellers and Stories.  It airs three times daily, five days a week.  

Q is for Queen

Queens like many women in the old tales play an important but secondary role.  They die off, they are step-mothers (with all the old connotations), they are not listened to, and in general are a bit superfluous.

Two of my favorite queens are the Queen from “The Lute Player,” of whom I spoke Saturday, and the Queen who outwits her husband the king by taking him with her.  There are various tales in which this happens; “The Basil Plant” from Chile is one.  I found it in Suzanne Barchers book, WiseWomen.  There is also “The Peasant's Clever Daughter,” which I have seen various places.  Here’s an internet link to “The Peasant's Clever Daughter.”

So both stories go that a clever peasant girl marries the king.  In “The Basil Plant” the girl’s one-up-man-ship is too much for the king to bear; so he feels he must marry her.  “The Clever Peasant Girl” answers the riddle: "Come to me not clothed, not naked, not riding, not walking, not in the road, and not out of the road, and if thou canst do that I will marry thee."  Once married the king tells his new wife to keep her nose out of his business.  But when she sees how he dispenses justice, she just can’t sit around doing nothing. 

 

Knowing she is behind the “tricks” being played upon him, the king plans to either send her home or burn her up.  But she is allowed to take with her “from the palace that which was dearest and most precious in (her) eyes” or to ask a favor.  In both cases the king is her choice.  He sees the wisdom of her actions and from then on she is either the one who dispenses justice or she helps with it. 

Not a bad way to get noticed.  The king couldn't very well ignore his queen and go on ruling himself if he died in the fire with her or stayed at her cottage for the rest of their lives.