Today I am thankful...
...that it is cooling down here in the valley (as the actress said to the bishop).
As a child, walking to school on Autumn days in a rainy Scotland, I used to promise myself with every damp step, that when I was older I'd live somewhere where it never got cold and it didn't rain.
It didn't matter where it was. It just mattered that I wouldn't naturally have to reach for my duffle coat, as soon as I had to go out anywhere.
In history lessons at school, the teacher talked about how uncomfortable suits of armour were. I reckoned armour was nothing in comparison to the torture of a damp duffle-coat.
Worn to protect you from the winds, the duffle-coat was a nightmare in the rain. A garment which allowed you to be cold and damp, and hot and damp, at exactly the same time.
On the long walk to school as the rain made the duffle-coat heavier and heavier, and I'd be surprised when i got to class that I wasn't a good two or three inches shorter that I'd been when I'd set off that morning.
And the smell of a damp duffle-coat? Nothing is worse. Nothing, that is, apart from an entire classroom full of damp duffle-coats.
Anyway, I promised myself that one day I'd live somewhere, where the very idea of owning a duffle-coat was absurd.
And here in LA I haven't bought a jacket at all in the past 8 years, and the ones I do have get an outing four or five times a year.
But last week, when the temperatures reached a very dry, 114 degrees (or 45c) in SEPTEMBER (!!!!!), I was almost nostalgic for the Scottish rain, and the cold wind, and even the damp duffle-coat....
I guess that's what happens with memories. They can change from dark to light, depending on how we choose to look at them.
That's one of the things we play around with in story class: Sometimes you can get stuck to the idea of a story being one way, and then when you lay the events out in front of you, often you discover that the story you really want to tell is a completely different one.
Events are just events after all. What makes them a story is how you build the sequence, and the perspective that you take.
And, now it's cooled down in the valley, I'm back to my old way of thinking about duffle-coats - my old, sensible, reasonable way. They're hellish!
Anyhoos, I have a new intake of storytellers this month. I still have a couple of spaces left in the October Start Course, so if you think it's time to lay your events in front of you, and build yourself a story to tell an audience at the end of October, sign up.
Honestly, there's no need to be scared. Nobody has to wear a duffle-coat.
Have a chilled week, and may all your stories be great ones!
Very best,
Lynn
xox
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