The Gab Storytelling
Set 1: Safety.Sanctuary.Set of Web.
How did I end up performing my set at the Gab? How did I even encounter the Gab? I actually attended the very first one Mary organised. I met her guarding the door to a secret place usually not available to the public except this one night during Culture Night. I was excited and buzzing and I started talking to her. She invited me to her first storytelling event she was organising later on that year. Of course, I went.
Storytelling has always been of interest to me as an art form in itself. I dive into a/the story and stories told via diverse ways in the project ‘Language of Life: Language of Humanity’. However, telling a story orally has been a renewed adventure for me. Something as beautiful and as traditional rooted me back to the power of information flowing through and from stories. I already knew what story I would like to tell in my first set ‘Safety. Sanctuary. Set of Web’. I enquired about the next storytelling event and my set was accepted to be presented at the Gab even though my ask was not small, as I wanted to perform a multimedia set. It included a short story too but also had a repetition of positive words, a poem, visuals and sounds. I was glad I was given this opportunity.
The Gab had no one hub, a place where it held events, they kept changing them as the stories themselves. I was truly surprised when I found out that the next Gab storytelling event was to take place in the church. On the one hand it had nothing to do with religious service, on the other I was thinking about the ceremony and ritual of gathering together as one of the crucial aspects of my project. Also, I was rather surprised (I probably shouldn’t have made any assumptions) by how the priest was technologically advanced and had all different gadgets. Another lesson for me! Do not assume. Really. Do not.
It was an unusual experience to perform from a pulpit. Something else was also bizarre. The origins of a story I chose to tell (before it was revealed where the next Gab event would take place), ‘Which Wolf will You Choose’ is not easy to trace down. On my preliminary research I found out that some claim it is Native American told by the Cherokee people but some sources attribute this story to Evangelical Christian Minister Billy Graham from his book, “The Holy Spirit: Activating God’s Power in Your Life” in 1978.
Below I am including the two stories for you to read. Maybe I will find out about the origins of this story one day. For now, I focus on the wisdom flowing from the story itself.
An old Cherokee is teaching his grandson about life. “Son,” he says, “Within all of us there is a battle of two wolves. One is evil: being anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.
He continued, “The other is good: being joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith.”
“The same fight is going on inside of you, and inside every other person, too,” explained the wise Cherokee elder.
The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, “Which wolf will win?”
The grandfather simply replied, “The one you feed.”
Evangelical version:
“AN ESKIMO FISHERMAN came to town every Saturday afternoon. He always brought his two dogs with him. One was white and the other was black. He had taught them to fight on command. Every Saturday afternoon in the town square the people would gather and these two dogs would fight and the fisherman would take bets. On one Saturday the black dog would win; another Saturday, the white dog would win – but the fisherman always won! His friends began to ask him how he did it. He said, “I starve one and feed the other. The one I feed always wins because he is stronger.”
Set 2: Potential.Transformation.Be Like Bees.
Potential. Transformation. set performance
I was delighted to perform another set from “Language of Life: Language of Humanity’ in the amazing Roundy. This time, I made up my own story. Inspired by bees and research on how bumblebees teach each other I hinted at what ideal education looks like to me.
Set 3: Logic.Exchange. Grassroots of the Land and her Conversations with Cows.
Logic.Exchange.
This event was strictly a storytelling competition so I could not incorporate other elements of the set. Yet, I had another wonderful opportunity to create and tell a story about the connection between the land, cows and humans in the context of food, here, butter, tying it though to my ‘Logic.Exchange’ set.
I lived at the top of Shandon street, nearby The Butter Museum. I decided to visit the museum since butter was a big part of the story. I found out a fountain of useful information and was pleasantly surprised with some fun facts. To my astonishment at the time when I was there, an elderly man showed how to churn butter and asked other people to help him churn the cream he brought from his farm. His name was Dan. A very cheerful man. Afterwards I talked to him and told him that I am preparing the story for a storytelling competition. He was very excited and decided to give me a card, which he signed. I enclose it below. I like how he signed it, The Butter Maker!
This was my last engagement with the Gab as life has taken me in different directions and other places.
I am very grateful for this adventure. I learnt a lot along the way while overcoming some fears and accepting my imperfections.
I encountered another story related to butter but this time involving frogs.
2 Frogs story from ‘The Slight Edge’
“One night, two frogs left the safety of their swamp and ventured into a nearby farm to explore. They soon found themselves in a dairy. Hopping and jumping around (frogs will be frogs, after all), they jumped into a milk pail half full of cream. At first, they were both thrilled. They had never tasted anything so delicious! They drank and drank. Soon (after some contented frog belches followed by much giggling) they were both full-bellied and getting just a bit sleepy. “Time to get out of here and head back to the swamp for some shut-eye,” burped the first frog. But there was a problem. They’d had no trouble hopping in ... but how to hop out? The inside of the pail was too slippery to climb, and there was nothing on which they could place their feet for traction to get up a good hopping distance ... or any hopping distance at all. The awful reality dawned on them: they were trapped. Frantic, they began to thrash about, their little frog feet scrabbling for a foothold on the elusive, slippery curve of the pail’s edge. Finally, the second frog cried out, “It’s no use! We’re doomed, my brother! Let us save what dignity we have left and die here like frogs, with our eyes facing our homeland!” The first frog cried out to stop him. “No! We should never give up! When we were tadpoles, which of us would ever have dreamed that some day we would emerge from the water and hop about on land? Swim on, and pray for a miracle!” The second frog eyed his brother sadly and said, “There are no miracles in the life of a frog, brother. Farewell.” And so saying, he turned his face in the direction of the swamp, gave a sigh, and slowly sank out of sight. But the first frog refused to give up. He continued to swim. He swam and he swam in ridiculous, pointless, useless, futile circles, hoping against hope for a miracle. Fired by adrenaline, he paddled mightily ... yet his brother’s dying words clutched at his thoughts, even more insidious than the growing fatigue that tugged at his weakening muscles. Was my brother right?, he thought desperately. Am I a fool? Are there no miracles in the life of a frog? Finally, he could swim no more ... and with a great cry of anguish, he stopped paddling and let go, ready at last to face his fate like a frog. But something odd then happened ... or rather, didn’t happen. He didn’t sink. He just sat exactly where he was. Ever so tentatively, he stretched out a foot ... and felt it touch something solid.”
This story is recounted to illustrate how every little thing accumulates to something larger. We may not see a result of one small action but will see the accumulation of actionS, irrespective of what that repetitive action is. HABIT.