An Extraordinary Tale: Part III

Last year, my daughter Talia and her boyfriend Matt invited my wife and I to an event in San Francisco called The Moth. It’s a venue for storytelling open to anyone with a good six-minute story to tell that is true, uses no disparaging language and is somewhat related to that particular event’s chosen theme. Those who want to sign-up simply put their name in a hat and 10 are randomly chosen. There are also two sets of chosen judges who score the story from 1 to 10 (most are generous and land between 8 and 10) and the winner gets to go on to a larger Moth event down the line. Matt had done well before and had a story ready to go. 

 

While waiting for Talia and Matt to come, the host re-affirmed the theme: “I didn’t see that coming!” Sitting there I thought, “Hey, I have a good story for that theme!” So when Talia and Matt came and I told her I wanted to sign-up, she looked at me with her forever-adolescent-“Dad!”-eye-roll and said:

“First of all, the story has to be six minutes long! I repeat: SIX MINUTES!” And you don’t just spontaneously get up, people really work on theirs!” 

Nevertheless, I persisted and decided to put my name in the hat. My only hesitation was it was one less chance that Matt might be chosen, but still, I did it. After the first storyteller spoke, part of me thought, “Hm. I see what Talia means about working on it!” So I began to think a bit more about my story, even as I was convinced it was likely I wouldn’t get chosen. The second one wasn’t as good as the first, but fine. And then—they chose me for the third!! Up I went and felt I did a pretty good job and the judges seemed to agree, scoring me between 8.8 and 9.2. As I turned to walk off the stage, they reminded me to pick the next name out of the hat. I did and — it was Matt!!! His story was great and in fact, he won that night. I think I came in 3^rd or 4^th. 

 

And the “I didn’t see that one coming” story I told? You guessed it— the one about Jim and Karen Bold. But there was more to the story that I managed to fit into the six minutes. After two lovely days at his house, Jim had to drive south on a business trip and offered to give us a ride to the intersection we needed for our next stop. Here’s my journal excerpt:

 

10/13— Good fortune nipping at our heels. Long ride down with Jim through relatively flat Midlands, a warm goodbye at the road to Cambridge intersection and five minutes later, picked up by a grey-haired professor with a handlebar mustache. After two minutes of talk, he invited us to his home for “tea.” We looked at each in amazed disbelief. 

 

He took us to his quaint cottage in the village of Tofts, past thatched-roofed houses and neighbors waving hello. He introduced us to his wife, they gave us a tour around the hobbit-like cottage with low ceilings and small windows, charm oozing out of every room. The table was set with sweet cakes, homemade bread, salad, cheese, red china, all prepared for the husband’s return to home and quickly shifted to accommodate us as guests. After “tea,” a twilight visit to the garden looking out to a field of sheep. Two young daughters came home from Brownies and listened politely while we talked about children’s literature. It seems that The Wind in the Willows (one of my favorite childhood books) was inspired by this region of East Anglia and he introduced us to The Little Grey Rabbit series. I played some Schumann and Mendelssohn on their piano next to a blazing fire and it felt like I was in a storybook.

 

Then upstairs to a lovely room with an inviting bed and woke up the next morning to a knock on the door. The hostess came in with a tray of tea and biscuits—breakfast in bed! One could get spoiled by this level of hospitality! 

 

 I ended my Moth re-telling of the whole tale something like this: 

 

And there you have it. Back-to-back drive-by acts of random kindness that I couldn’t have seen coming. And the lesson I’ve carried with me from that time?  That there’s every reason in the world to be distrustful, to be cynical, to think you have to pass through this life watching out for number 1. But what does it get you? Fear, misery, anger, a life that infects others with your own fear, misery and anger. Everybody loses.

 

If you flip it around and treat the world as if it’s a benevolent place and treat people as if they’re innately good-hearted, lo and behold, the Jim and Karen Bolds will find you and treat you to tea. We fulfill our own prophecies, so be careful what you choose.

 

PS When I told Matt and Talia I was going to look for the Bolds on this trip, I imagined that if I found them, it would be a fabulous Moth Story, Part 2!! So now I'm ready to sign up. Let’s see if the opportunity present itself.