A Tradition

Now, I'm not going to review my whole 500 posts to see if I've written on this, but I'm sure that I have, and I'd venture that I've done it more than once. Back then, I bet I whined about not having much in the way of traditions, but I'd like to revisit that.

Last week I shared a workshop at iTRAC on digital autobiography, and in that setting, I shared a tradition my family had at Christmas: watching slideshows and 8mm home movies.

It was a great tradition that I did not then appreciate, of course, being a kid. The added value was not the popcorn or the movie itself; it was instead the folklore, the family narrative, the voice-over provided by a chorale of familial voices laughing and chiming in on that time my cousin covered herself with talcum to be a ghost or how I once said "boobs" at a Thanksgiving gathering. Almost all those voices have been stilled now by mortality, and in that era none of us thought to record them. (I sure wish we would have!)

The tradition lives on, at least that of storytelling. Every night I am called upon to offer up a long short story. I've been doing this nightly for over ten years now. I'm unschooled in storytelling, but I've learned a lot on the job. What gets a laugh. What's memorable. What gives the kids bad dreams...and I'm wanting to up my game as they get older and read the works of "real" storytellers like Mark Twain.  I hope to take several workshops on storytelling in the future.

Often our stories are collaborative efforts. My wife is amazed at how I build stories from ingredients. I will solicit the kids for one ingredient each, then I spin it into the story in a significant way. They might offer, for instance: pirate, chickens, uncle and underwear. I cannot get away with something like "Your uncle became a pirate and drew chickens on some underwear which he then flew as his flag." 

And, lesson learned from the 8mm days, sometimes I record the stories as they're told, or I "can" a story by recording it in advance, saving a few up for when I might be on the road or something. These are digitally recorded and stored up to someday give the kids' kids. 

Reboot

With what now do I amuseth myself these days?

Unfortunately, too often it's work by day, home economics by night. In the years this blog went dormant, I gained some mastery of exercise, animal husbandry, and I'm well into writing my first young adult literature novel. I've gotten traction and a team of experts to help in the arduous task at work of faculty development. 

But home/free time amusement? I like entertaining questions my kids raise, like the other day they were razzing me about bird seed. If you plant it, will it grow birds? If birds eat it, aren't they then cannibals? Even in asking this, they were giggling, all of us knowing how ludicrous it was, and at the same time knowing I would give the subject exhaustive coverage in over-the-top speculation.

 I comb over home improvement books like bridezilla does the latest issue of Bride's magazine. I lay awake at night debating over cantaloupes or watermelon in the garden of the year. I imagine myself at the helm of a wicked cool roto-tiller that would make even Tim Taylor envious.
 

 And thanks to a friend who's not shy at calling me out to help me improve, I'm spending ample time circling the horsepower around the idea of going public. He suggested I have lots to share and that I'm doing a disservice to others by keeping it to myself. That may sound like a license to blather, but I hope to put it to better use.

 There's no way I can resist returning to my good ol' blog now, especially when coupled with this article on Showing your Work. Here's to a fresh start!