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Jul 29, 2020 20:36:26 #

Robert J Samples wrote:

As spinners of stories, we are also magicians in that we can take our audiences on time travel trips. No, not physically, but with the mind, their senses. Physical teleportation has not yet been perfected but being there in one’s mind’s eye is still phenomenal and wonderful.

I have titled this introduction as Smells, Songs, and Stories. I do not know what your smells are, mine are Hoppes Power Solvent, gun smoke, and Coppertone suntan lotion, and to remind me of Christmas, Orange peels and Cranberries. I have read somewhere that the sense of smell is the most direct access to the brain and has the most primitive arousal and recognition of all the senses.

Some of my favorite memories were of hunting and the smell of gun smoke, then cleaning the weapon with Hoppes power solvent and recalling the thrill of the hunt. Since where I lived and the time, during the depression, oranges, and any kind of citrus was not a common item in our diet. Usually at Christmas the community Christmas party would include all the children receiving a cellophane bag with candy, nuts, and fruit, which usually would have at least one orange.

I suspect that a whiff of your mother’s perfume or face powder, or your father’s after shave cologne, of a sudden sniff of wood stove smoke, maybe like your grandmother’s kitchen would have the magical transportation of us all back to a different era.

Songs, particularly those we heard or played a long time ago also have this magical way of grabbing us and our consciousness and transporting us to another time and place. Different genres for different decades, but still magical.

Finally, and third, stories have a way of bonding the teller with the hearers in a magical and intimate fashion. I suspect many of us can even hear our mother, or father’s voice as well as the words of the story. And we may have repeated these same stories to our children and grandchildren.

As writers, we are all heirs of Moses, the first college graduate to download information on a tablet in written words. Before that, all were oral stories handed down by the campfire in front of the tent, or mouth of a cave, and repeated over generations and centuries, while spinning magical spells for the hearers. Over the centuries, historical information, moral, ethical, and practical behavior information woven into the fabric of these stories to ensure the success and survival of the tribe.

I have often joked that if I could play a musical instrument I would go on the road. Well, I am already on the road, so I am in the process of learning to play the banjo. I have sold two rifles I no longer use to finance the purchase and lessons. I do not want to hear from anyone SAY they are too old to undertake a “wild and crazy” idea, something they have always wanted to do but are afraid to launch out. I had never touched a banjo before my age of 85!

If you want it bad enough to spend the hours learning how to play, or whatever is required to master your idea, you can do it! Everything that is stopping you is within your head. So, stop with all the negative thoughts and go ahead and start the dream you have had. Just give yourself permission! Give two examples of learning something difficult! Golfing: When I was much younger, I played golf. I always seemed to have a reasonably long drive off the tee box but would slice to the right into the woods or creek. Finally, I say to myself, “this is ridiculous, so I taught myself how to hit a straight drive!

On another occasion, I had a doctor friend who wanted me to take up archery so we could hunt in October, which is set aside for archers to hunt deer. At first, I resisted, being a rife hunter and knowing rifles are much more efficient and long ranged. But archery did offer some benefits by having a full month early in the season and the chance to be out in the woods and safe from other hunters. So, it took me a full year to become proficient but by the second season I was a successful deer hunter with bow and arrow. This did not happen overnight, since it required a lot of hours of practice.

I believe our lives should consist of prioritizing and doing, never being constrained by the fear of failure. We will never be able to do all that we would like to do, so choose wisely and well! Just Sayin…RJS

As spinners of stories, we are also magicians in t... (show quote)

you can sure tell good stories. You should write a book.