The Universe in Your Cup

I've started reading A Salmon of Doubt (trying to read stuff from my bookshelves at home), and I haven't even gotten to the stories yet. I'm still in one of the many introductions, learning all kinds of delicious things about Douglas Adams. As much as I love and admire him, I'm going to have to disagree with one of the things he's said.

He didn't have a great deal of success until Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. But that was wildly popular and there was demand for more books. Supposedly he complained that when you write your first book you are drawing on, say, 25 years of life experience. But then, you publish another book about a year later, and only have one more year of experience to draw on. Soon you are "running on empty."

As a relatively young storyteller, I have fallen into the trap of thinking that I don't have enough experiences on which to build my stories. But, time after time that has proven to be simply untrue. And it's not just because I'm getting older. I'm finding stories I already have much faster than I am living new ones.

I think the reason for this is the microcosm. Each moment is filled with infinite experiences and stories. I can mine the same exact experience and find something new to tell about it.

For example, I am currently compiling stories from my study abroad trip to Rome. Several years ago, when I started to get a little more "real" about my storytelling, and was specifically hoping to merge my mythology interests with personal stories, I tried to work on a piece about Rome.

The only thing I could come up with was the Milky Way story, which I love and have performed with great success.

In the last couple of years, thanks to prompts from Carapace and Stories on the Square, I have also told stories about my failure to learn Italian and how that impacted my stay in Rome, and an unfortunate incident in Pompeii involving lots of wine.

Add to that some ideas I've been pondering about the Forum, and a few more things that popped into my head while thinking on the newest Carapace theme, Bad Behavior, and that overall Rome trip story is practically telling itself.

See I thought I had this one experience. But really I had so very many experiences during one six week time period. Looking at that same time through different lenses, digging deeper into specific topics, continually gives me more and more material.

The same thing happens with my naughty stories, my band stories, my parenting stories...

I don't think my creative efforts will ever exhaust my supply of life experience. Each and every moment is too rich to become used up.

I am so glad that storytelling has helped me to see that.