Last month, I visited my son in New York City. He had just moved into the first floor of a brownstone and for the first time in three years he had a backyard. Imagine, green in the asphalt jungle. In his excitement, he started to make it his own by clipping and reshaping the existing greenery. Lo and behold, three days later, much to his surprise and dismay, poison ivy blisters appeared on his arms and legs.
I comforted him by saying what a great story it would make – “Poison Ivy Strikes Manhattan” – as I applied the calamine lotion.
Unexpectedly, the pink coloring of the calamine lotion triggered my memories and took me back to my childhood and my own poison ivy stories. Once, I rolled down a hill loaded with it. Another time, I picked blackberries in a poison ivy patch. I even got it by caressing my dog who had been romping in the woods.
It was as if stories lived inside the bottle of pink calamine lotion. Suddenly, the ideas started to flood my brain. One story resonated off another; I had lost the power to control it. I allowed myself hours and free license to explore my stories. I remembered ones that shaped who I am today; I remembered others that have regained me my composure. I remembered stories that allowed me to go off into a new direction. Nothing like “pink” to activate a thunderous brainstorm of stories.
Stories engulf us and they engage us. When the audience connects with a story be it with an object, a character, a point of view, or a message, we find that it serves as a bridge to our own repertoire of stories. When the story consumes the audience, we are changed for the better. Allow yourself to be “in” and “with” your stories.
Leave a Reply