Thousands of years ago every tribe/clan had their story teller. As there were no books available to the common people, and in some cases no writing system either, the story teller was responsible for keeping the history of the tribe/clan alive in memory, for keeping the tribe/clan legends and mythology alive, and, through their stories, ensuring the tribe/clan understood the lessons contained in the histories, legends, and mythologies.

In some societies story tellers held very exalted and powerful positions…. Irish mythology, where the story tellers were called Bards, goes so far as to tell us that the poor treatment of a bard resulted in the downfall of a king.

Today, as our society depends less and less on being able to actually remember a story, myth, or legend - and more and more on ‘reading aloud’, the art of story telling is quickly becoming a lost one, even among people who profess to be story tellers.

A year or so ago I watched a (self proclaimed) ’story teller’ at a fairly large event pace the floor, whirl and twirl about his stage, wave his arm to emphasize a point, as he shouted, and whispered through a wide range of tone - but even the lighting, the costume he wore, and the sound affects he used, could not take away from the fact that he was carrying a stapled bundle of papers in his hand are reading his story aloud - not telling it. At the end of the performance I clapped politely (the majority of the crowd was far more enthusiastic) although the thought of ‘How does one engage the audience if you cannot look at them without forgetting what you are supposed to be saying?’ was foremost in my mind.

…. and this bothered me

A few months ago I attended an event in a local park where the ’story teller’ completely butchered what is a great story with many lessons by his use of “or something like that” when he could not remember the tale.

…. and this bothered me (to the point that I had to resist the urge to chew the bark off a nearby tree in frustration)

Last night I attended another event, a Wiccan Mystery play to be exact, that told the Sumerian story of The Descent of Inanna. A great story, the players were enthusiastic, they knew their lines and parts, and given what they had at their disposal for lighting and special affects it was great theatre… but the narrator standing on a balcony reading from a bundle of stapled paper significantly detracted from the event, and, again

…. this bothered me

No more examples, y’all know what bothers me about this now, as to the why, the answer is fairly simple. I have been lucky enough to see real story tellers in action and have even been known to weave a tale or tell a story or two, to my kids when they were young, and now and again even now as they (and their friends) still enjoy a good story, around bonfires at night, and with informal gatherings of friends - and, like the story tellers I enjoy listening to, if I do not know a story, myth, or legend, well enough to tell it without reading it - I won’t tell it.

Because this does bother me I decided, earlier this month, to both add a bit more theatre to my story telling, and to try and promote amateur story telling without paper…. this is the part where the cloak comes in.

Last night I was measured for a long, dark green, rough textured, sleeveless (simple slits for arms), lined (removable), big coweled, cloak to wear when circumstance permits its use in the telling of a story - basically anytime it happens out of doors.

I can hardly wait until it’s finished.’

(The content of this post was cut ‘n pasted from the text file containing what was recovered from our previous system after our previous host mangled the database - comments, if any, were not recovered)