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Storytelling


Symora

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Took my first Storytelling class today. I've been interested in storytelling for awhile and thought I'd give it a go... One of the exercises was about drawing a picture of your neighbourhood as a kid, and then telling the person at the table with you a story around that. I quickly realized that all my childhood stories were skewed towards the negative, which is not the way I wanted it to go - I panicked a little inside.... But once I settled into it I realized my childhood was pretty normal in fact, until I hit high school,:eek: which I began way too young... Anyway, it made me realize how warped my mind is towards the negative... I wonder if that biased way of remembering started later or if I was always a bit that way ... perhaps I've inherited a negativity gene or something, since I don't remember ever feeling light and happy. Well, maybe there were those times when I'd take my bicycle out and just cruise around the neighbourhood for hours on end... :o

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Storytelling "CLASS"?? Wow! I didn't know there was such a thing.

If I were to do that exercise though, I probably would have leaned toward the negative too IF other people were involved. I found my most pleasurable times growing up were involved with the beach, the marsh, animals, the ocean and boats.

Your post set me thinking about that now. :o

Can you tell a story in one paragraph?

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Well, no, not yet... but I'll learn (she says defensively :o...) Ok, I'll give it a go...

Mullah Nazrudin heard there was a great feast in the next village, to which every one was invited. He quickly made his way to the celebration. The Master of Cememonies, upon seeing his dirty cloak and discheveled look, seated him at one of the furthest tables from the Emir. Our Mullah soon realized that it would probably take an hour before he would be served something to eat, and so he decided to return home. He soon found his best ermine cloak and his highest and most beautiful turban, and thus attired he returned to the feast. When the Master of ceremonies saw him coming down the road, he asked the trumpeteers to blow their trumpests, the drummers to pound their mighty drums, in welcome for this eminent guest. Mullah Nazrudin was invited to sit at a table near the grand Emir, and served the most sumpsuous platters of Persian delicacies. But instead of eating it, Mullah took some meat and began rubbing it on his cloak. Surprised, the Emir mentionned to his honourable guest that he had never seen this practice before, to which Mullah Nasrudin replied <since it is because of the cloak I am now eating, I feel it only right that it should partage in this wonderful meal>.

Hey... it's a Mullah Nazrudin story, that's the way they are...he's a bit of a wise old goofball :-)

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I've always loved Nazrudin tales. There’s a series of stories out of the Middle East about this iconoclastic fella,…a sort of modern day anti-logician and yet very irrepressible. My son Benjamen reminds me of Nazruddin--- actually, Ben has always been as Nazruddin, a guy who can easily use his satire to cut through the rubbish.

Anyway, one story starts out that Nasrudin got a job at a busy granary, loading sacks onto trucks to be taken to market. The foreman, who was keeping an eye on the workers, noted that his pace was different than the others, so he soon came over to speak to him. "Why is it that you carry only one sack at a time while the other workers all carry two?" asked the foreman. Nasrudin looked around and said, "I suppose that they are too lazy to make two trips the way I do." This would be a Benjamen comment, said with a straight face and equal wit. Another famous Nasrudin tale is about how one day, as he was getting dressed, his wife said to him, "Mullah [teacher], you always put on your right shoe first. Why is that?" Nasrudin answered, "Wouldn't it be foolish to put on the wrong shoe first?"

One day Ben was one day sweeping the side porch, and as usual, he was doing his poor quality job. Just as he was about to finish I asked him to do it right. He was about to carry everything into the house so with a straight face he says: "You know dad,… no one was happy with the Mona Lisa until the smile was paonted on!" Suggesting, of course, that he wasn't really finished and that I had again jumped the gun. He was later on grounded and was not allowed to use the phone. A friend of his, Tim, called and he got on to chit chat. I walked in on him and before I could get it out he says, ",… yeah Bob, the catfish are really big in WV, we look forward to seeing you soon then!" And he promptly hung up the phone leaving me speechless.

This sounds like an exciting course, good luck and really enjoy it.

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Symora, for an excellent collection of stories from around the world, get The Moral Compass and its' companion, The Book of Virtues. Storytelling at it's finest, all drawn from cultures everywhere. The interesting part is how there is such variety and beauty to each culture's stories. ENJOY!

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