Telling with Better Said Than Done in early 2014.
That evening I was telling The Dalmatian Dog, a story of a little dust-up between Jim and me twenty years before. Looking back the story is funny and sweet instead of being the drama it seemed at the time. Jim liked it and enjoyed that I had turned the incidents into a story. I have a tape of one performance where I clearly hear him laughing out loud as I told it.
Before telling a story I listen to tapes of previous tellings. That evening as I listened to the story in the car on the way from my house in Maryland to the venue in Virginia tears slipped down my cheeks as stepped back into the story and relived it. I wondered if I had made a mistake in choosing this story.
Later the audience changed that. I laughed as I told it and loved telling the story for people who appreciated it and laughed in all the right places.
Jim felt close. That was an immediate and wonderful gift.
Soon after Jim died people asked me if it was hard to tell stories. "How can you do it?"
The answer to that is - "because I have to - its my comfort."
Even though I may weep privately to prepare and afterwards- but for those moments when the memories are vivid and Jim is so close by it is well worth a few tears.
I am grateful for the opportunity to share the stories.
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