Wed. June 27, 2012 3 p.m. the phone rings. The call from my friend Norah Dooley, storyteller from Cambridge, Ma. “I have an outrageous proposal, want to hear?”
Of course I do, because Norah thinks like me. Her mind is in constant motion, and she puts herself 100% into what she is doing. If Norah has an outrageous idea, it’s a good one!! The problem is I’m at work, “give it to me in a nut shell I have to get back to work.” Little did I know where that would lead.
Less than 24 hours later we are climbing into a car for an adventurous drive to the National Storytelling Conference in Cincinnati, Ohio and Covington, KY. The drive across Connecticut rolls by quickly as we catch up with each others family and story news. New York rolls out clear and welcoming and darkness falls as we enter Pennsylvania. Fireworks on the horizon welcome us and with smiles we drive on. Then the rain comes, then winds, hail, thunder and lightening, it’s a weather war. We dodge trailer trucks and storm and drive out of the storm and through the night. Next morning I pull in to the National Storytelling Conference. I am still powered by my road trip energizer of a Butterfinger candy bar and Coke, and find a welcome cup of coffee! It’s Storytelling time!
If you attend a storytelling conference or festival it is like going to a well for water and drawing a bucket up inch by inch and that refreshed satisfaction of the first long sip. Friends old and new, incredible performances, and ideas bubbling up like a fountain from all the stimulation.
The Oracle Award for Massmouth www.massmouth.org is the reason behind the trip to the National Storytelling Conference Norah has come to accept the Oracle on behalf of Massmouth and Andrea Lovett her co-winner. The award presented by the National Storytelling Network www.storynet.org
