Thursday, May 12, 2016

Writing with Rox WEEKLY—For example...let's be Village People

You have probably heard me say hexteen gillion times that "stories are gifts" or some variation thereof over the years. In a more melodramatic way or day, you may have heard me liken the gifts of stories to the days of the oral tradition, where folk went from tribe-to-tribe sing-speaking all the village news— sometimes as entertainment, sometimes as prayer, sometimes as warning, sometimes  to make trouble, and sometimes because they were bored, or it felt good, or it distracted them out of their bodies— because, what else was there to do? 

Anyway, that's my smug understanding of it. On hormonal days, you may hear me get all high on my anti-literary culture/book binding, publishing horse because it warps the consciousness around creative expression and the love of writing as process and practice. It reverses the writing process from internally to externally driven, a labor of love detoured out of the heart into the big brain in order to present a well thought out, intelligent offering of perfection to the court (jesters).  It's an outrage, I'll say, because "we have lost so much of the spontaneity of the oral tradition, where we just said or sang our stories; we didn't worry how they came out or what they sounded like. But no, we had to go get all in our heads and start writing those stories down and lose our flow and intuition and before you knew it, one thing led to another and those living, fluid, stories were cryonized into books and wow, isn't that grand? Except if no one liked those books, especially literary critics and the other who-whos du jour, well then uh-oh."

So... what? I have my cranky days. Not every day is a Ram Dass day. Sorry.

You do realize when I quote myself I'm releasing trauma, don't you? A little narrative therapy goes a long way! Anyway, the point is, the whole twisted point, is the Prius. I was getting there.

So, "for example,"  your stories tonight will be great gifts. So, tell, if you will, stories of your car: Is your car comfortable? Do you love her? If so, what is it? Do you, like me, have a sad, tragic, Prius story? I'll tell you mine... soon, for it is a story, a humbling story in fact, it is. But now, my beloved writing tribe, please share with my Beach Village, in any narrative tradition of your choosing (song, blog, image, recorded sound, type, big literary, with drum, etc) your Prius or bad back car stories (and what you did about it) or your awesome car comfort stories. I need em villagers. I need em like the days of the oral tradition, where your very life (or at least your back) depended on good news from the village two doors down. 

And don't worry about saying it loud and uncouth. It's okay, little Bear Cubs. In this village, this mighty Beach village, the lion sleeps tonight.

10 comments:

  1. Yes. YES! YOU are the reason, this post, is the reason why I've kept up with my (latest)blog. Because I finally came to believe you. That writing raw is ok. It's way more than ok, it's imperative. Get your stories out before they are lost or forgotten until a time you could compose...
    I never had a Prius. I did have a Toyota that somehow got a quarter stuck in the steering wheel and every time I made a left turn, you could hear it rolling around in there. My current car is a Dodge Caliber. I LOVE HIM. His name is Kyle. Partly because the license plate has KLE in it and partly because the guy who helped sell it was named Kyle. It's been good to me and I've decked it out. I have many figures Velcro-ed to the dash, including a few of the Fairy Tale witches, a dog that squeak and sticks his tongue out, a giraffe and the dog Kyle from Despicable Me. Along the stereo panel I have buttons. Tons of them. They make me happy. There's a Grumpy Cat sticker on the back along with my own spelling of Cray Z. I never really cared for driving, until I got Kyle. Now I'm a delivery driver!

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    1. Love this Mel and I love you! You rock on with your raw stories in your gentleman of all 4-wheeleds, Kyle, and your chorus of happy beings! There's a party I'd love to join! Joy, joy! xoxoxo

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  2. I've never been a car guy. My kid brother Mike is though - a Ford mechanic for forty years. I recall when we were still in our twenties I spent a year overseas as a journalist. It was an amazing experience - I spent time in East Germany, got ten minutes with Maggie Thatcher and spent a week interviewing prisoners at the notorious Irish prison Mountjoy, plus a dozen other life changing experiences. But when I returned home for Christmas that year, Mike had but one question for me - what was I driving. He had absolutely zero interest in asking anything else - and he turned away in disgust when I told him it was just a rental car and I wasn't sure of the make. Forty years later and not much has changed. Mike and I live at opposite ends of the country so we see each other but once every couple of years. He never fails to ask me what I am driving, then we talk about the Red Sox for ten minutes and that's it. Wait till I see him next and tell him my only means of transportation nowadays is a Vespa and the disability bus. That may be then end of our relationship.

    Cars never turned me on, though I did in true American fashion lose my virginity is the back seat of my dad's convertible. It was a mercy boink. I had a girlfriend in 9th grade, Betsy, who was from the projects and truly was 14 going on 26. She was fast, fast, fast. She dropped out of school our sophomore year but I ran into her the summer after graduation and when I confessed to still being a virgin -right after she stopped laughing - she decided it was her patriotic duty to render me a man and the rest was history. Best damn seven seconds of my life.
    I seem to have told that story to many times.

    Cars and stories - nope, not me. Now, dogs and stories, trains and stories, refugees and stories...yeah, I can sing to those beats.

    Wait, I do remember a car that I loved. It belonged to my friend The Thin Man who owend the bar I worked at in Austin way back in the late seventies. He had a gorgeous yellow caddy convertible and when we closed our bar, the Hole in the Wall, at two we'd clean up and then, still to keyed up to go home, we'd pile into Sally Sue as the Caddy was named, and cruise the streets of the texas capital in the magical pre-dawn hours. We'd drive slowly down Sixth Street where the blues clubs where still vibrating with the sounds of Albert King and Stevie Ray and then we'd head up to Laredo St where the ladies of the night were displaying their attributes. They always recognized us and waved and we'd pull over and share whatever refreshments we had. Now talk about storytellers...those beauties were impassioned raconteurs. Of course tall tales and Texas go hand in hand.

    I suppose we've all had good times in cars so almost by osmosis we therefor must have quality car stories to tell. Thinking about it though, I probably have some sort of Pavlovian aversion to cars - something to do with being part of a nine-member family stuffed into a station wagon with my mom chain smoking Larks and my dad puffing on his ever-present cigar and the windows rolled up against the rain and me with acute asthma and all the kids bickering and punching as we made our weekly Sunday two-hour pilgrimage to the convent to visit my aunt, Sister Frozen Face.
    I get seasick just thinking about it.

    Nah, give me a horse or a moped any day. Let me know, please, Rox, when the topic is moped stories.

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    1. Rob! You are killing me. I hope you are enjoying writing these as much as I am reading them. When and where are you going to get yourself published aside from right here (and I a'int complaining!)? As always, your funny and your insight and your spirit allow me to relax into these amazing stories and enjoy them despite the obvious edge and suffering... your brother: poor guy. He's missing out on you. On life, too, sounds like. But I guess he was stuffed in that car as well and didn't handle it quite as well as you are, at the very least turn it into poetry, such as this. Thanks, as always, Rob. Enjoy Defiance! Oh, and moped stories any time! :)

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    2. Rox's back porch (blog) is one of my favorite story telling places. Such a joyful and inspiring vibe. Thanks Rox.

      My brother is not alone in his social mechanics - I have been soapboxing for a few years now about the epidemic of solipsism in our culture. More and more folk seem not only disinterested but downright incapable of discussing any subject that isn't central in their own world. Mike is a good guy, he is a great family man, but he has maybe five subjects he will talk about - family, cars, Red Sox, Allman Brothers and beer - and then he is just flat out of conversational ammo. Of course Mike openly brags about having never read a complete book in his entire life. He hates all things 'egghead'. How we grew up in the same bedroom for eighteen years and ended up so different is a
      mystery for the ages.
      But I will share this one story, because I think it paints him in a more favorable, and truer, light.

      One year, a decade or so ago, I visited Mike and his family for a week in Boston. On one timeless New England summer eve I accompanied Mike to his son's baseball practice. His son Matt was thirteen or so. So anyways, it was a typical practice where the kids all got a turn batting and the others played out in the field. I got bored fairly quickly but fortunately I had brought a book to read so I sat up in the stands and immersed myself in some historical tale. At one point my brother sauntered over to the stands with bat in hand and gave me a disgusted look. Then he stared out at the field with such a look of longing it startled me. He then said aloud, mostly to himself, "boy, I hope they let me hit".
      My heart broke. It was just so damn pathetic - this forty year old man with his Duck Dynasty beard and here he was standing there like some poor ten year old who hadn't been picked for the team.
      So the sun started to set behind the tall pines standing like sentries behind the outfield fence and there was poor Mike standing by the backstop, still with bat in hand, as darkness sprinted forward.
      Suddenly, out of the blue of dusk, I heard this chant start up from the kids out in the field..."Let Mr. King hit, let Mr King hit." I sat there amazed. There were two or three adult coaches and I could clearly see the look of annoyance on their faces as obviously they wanted practice to be over so they could head home to their families. They had zero interest in indulging the whim of my brother. Once again my heart ached for Mike.
      But the chant from the kids only grew louder.
      "Let Mr. King hit."

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    3. Then it happened. The head coach motioned to Mike to get in the batters box and a great cheer went up from all the youngins out in the field. Mike is a big guy, six two and two-fifty or so in weight so all the kids scurried to the depths of the outfield expecting grand fly balls and such.
      I think I honestly put my hand over my eyes. I couldn't watch. It was both so comical and tragic at the same time - this great big Harley guy taking batting practice on a Little League field with such serious intent.
      The first pitch, Mike to a titanic swing and hit a litle pop fly out to the coach on the pitching mound. There was a collective groan from the players then another round of gusty cheers of encouragement.
      Bless the Gods above, if Mike didn't then hit three majestic home runs with his next three swings. He hit the ball deep over the fence and into woods three straight times and the kids in the field were shouting and jumping and throwing their gloves in the air as if the Red Sox had just won the pennant.
      They screamed for Mike to take a trot around the bases and damned if he didn't.
      One the ride home Mike's chest was so puffed out I wondered how he could steer the car. His son Matt and I teased him mercilessly on how lame it was that he was so proud of homering in a Little League field.

      So when my visit was over and I was back home in Calgary I told the story of Mike's home run heroics to my wonderfully insightful girlfriend Laurie. She listened patiently and when I finished I fully expected her to join me in the laughter of the snide and sarcastic.
      But Laurie just looked at me with this mixed expression of sadness and annoyance.
      "You just don't get it, do you?" she said.
      "Your brother is not a sad case or idiot for acting like he did. He is a hero in my eyes."
      "A hero? Are you kidding me?. How can a forty year old hitting a home run on a kids field be a hero?" I asked Laurie in disbelief.
      "Because," she intoned. "Your brother knows what brings him pleasure in life. Simple things bring him pleasure. Hitting a baseball far into the summer night clearly brought him a level of joy that I have never once seen in you.
      "You, on the other hand," Laurie continued. "You have to travel to distant lands and discover ancient ruins to experience that kind of joy or to exhibit that amount of pure pleasure. Your brother may be a more limited man than you in some ways, but he clearly knows who he is and even more so seems highly capable of enjoying the simple pleasures of his world."
      Laurie stared a me for a moment and then sighed, "Right now, at this moment I like your brother Mike a whole lot more than I do you."
      My Canadian romance slid slowly downhill after that conversation.
      Laurie was right, of course. In many ways Mike is a far better man than I am. He may not have the degrees I do or the world of experiences I have had, but he is a man who dearly loves his family and the pleasures of his world. I envy him that. And I'm proud of him too.
      My brother Mike, the home run hitter.

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    4. sorry about all the typos and mis-spellings. does spellcheck work here?

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  3. As sad as it sounds, Rox, I love it that not all your days are Ram Dass days. I feel closer to you because of it.

    Toyota Corolla...the summer of 1975...purchased it off the floor for $3,300... navy blue... stick shift... that I had no idea how to drive...well. Drove west with my boyfriend Steve... learned to REALLY use the stick...in San Francisco.
    I named the navy blue Toyota Corolla Blythe...
    Blythe was a blast to drive...
    especially since she replaced the light blue VW Beetle that didn't have a second gear...
    and people flipped me off all the time in the depths of Minneapolis when I stalled mid-intersection...
    Ah, but I digress...

    I was still fun when I owned Blythe.
    I wasn't yet a walking tear drop.
    I played with Blythe:
    I danced in the driver's seat while blasting the music I loved on her radio.
    She let me.
    She never demanded that I behave.
    In fact, she encouraged me to do otherwise.

    I carted my younger sisters to and fro in Blythe...
    One of my favorite games, worth endless belly laughs:
    When I stopped at a stop sign,
    I would pull the seat lever with my left hand,
    causing the seat back to drop flat,
    and I would disappear,
    literally, drop out of sight...

    When passengers were also ready to play with Blythe,
    we'd have "Chinese firedrills" when and wherever we were moved to do so....

    Thanks for the memory jog....
    Good days with my Blythe.....

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    1. Oh my gosh, Nancy, how I love this digression and hearing about dear Blythe! What else inspires in you this amazing play like Blythe? And where did you find that name?? What do you drive now? Likey? I named my first car Majenter, after the Rocky Horror Picture Show. How I loved that Saab, though she was worthless on the road. But man, how many memories live in that car?

      I looove seeing you in this car. I see you in her...vividly... sweet, beautiful memories... Thanks Nancy! Oh, and yeah, don't let me ever fool you into thinking all days or even close are not RD days! :) xoox

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    2. PS: would love to hear you write out more memories of this joyful time... and then some. :)

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