Story Telling

“And then….”

“And then….”

“And then…”

New Hampshire, USA. The air in our house-in-the-woods was full of stories – families together sharing our lives apart, — a house move, a wedding, a strange illness conquered, —  and our past lives together: “What was Dad like when I was a baby?”  “How did Mom react to the Internment Camp?” “Tell me about Grandmother.”   “Do you remember when…..?” What was Grandpa and Grandma’s wedding like?

All personal, all strong, and all warmly received with love, albeit sometimes layered on top of each other.  It is true that the human brain is definitely wired for Story. 

It was an active, wonderful vacation in America.  The warmth of the family, coupled with the traditional welcome and support from strangers the USA always provides:  “Well, we gotta look out for each other”, said one woman who’d helped me buy tickets in the four-minutes before our train arrived.  And people do.  They don’t wait to be asked.  They notice the difficulty and respond. This inbred “looking out for each other” was still richly prevalent throughout our 10 day visit.

The stories with each of the family members will be treasured forever.  But having special set-aside time with four of my siblings was sacred.  

There was, however, a new twist to Story that I hadn’t thought of before, when we visited the Isabella Gardner Museum in Boston.  Isabella Gardner brought works of art from all over the world, and she created a beautiful museum.  Unlike others, the museum isn’t chronological, it’s not even thematic.  Instead, it is clusters of artifacts that make beautiful images together.  This is true of the whole museum, centred around a magnificent garden courtyard reorganised weekly.  It offers a sense of peace, of serenity, when we enter, and doesn’t stop throughout its three storeys.   For example, near the front is an arrangement of a Roman stone sarcophagus, an archway above from the 16^th century, and 18^th Century Tiffany lights on either side.  The whole arrangement looks “right” somehow. 

“Isabella was adamant that no one should change any of the arrangements she had made” said the lady at the desk with a large ‘Ask Me’ label pinned to her chest.  And so they remain 120+ years later.  “I wondered why Isabella was so certain,” she continued, “but the more I looked at each arrangement, I could hear her story.  I even took a trip to Europe.  I saw the things she saw (and more) and could understand why she chose them.  I could hear her story.  But then, surprisingly, the more I looked and studied the artifacts, the more I heard my story, not hers.”

How intriguing! To look at a painting, an article, a scene, and absorb it until it tells a personal story to me!  How long have I whisked through museums, spotting a face here, a dash of colour there, an amusing animal somewhere else! Always trying to understand the artist’s story! How much better to stand, and look, and to hear my story in the image before me! A new way to start looking at things!

How about you? 

Cobb Salad

In Penn Station, New York City, there is a delightful salad bar, where they mix your chosen ingredients in front of you.  I bought a Cobb Salad.

I sat devouring its wonderfulness as crowds of suitcases whirled around me, pulled by people-in-a-hurry. I didn’t care.  The salad was delicious and reminded me that I was in America once again. 

This is what it takes to make a Cobb salad.  Amounts? Your choice:

Cobb (Romaine) lettuce, crispy smoked bacon, hardboiled egg, chunks of blue cheese , pieces of cooked chicken, avocado, spring onions, cherry tomatoes, and Ranch dressing.

Ranch Dressing

If you have easy access to Ranch dressing, lucky you.  If you don’t, try this recipe.  The herbs are dried ones, which add flecks to the dressing, and they blossom out in flavour if you leave the mixture in the fridge overnight.  

1 cup mayonnaise         ½ cup sour cream  ……2tsp lemon juice, and a splash of whole milk if necessary, for suitable runniness.

And ½ – 1 tsp dried chives, ½ – 1 tsp dried dill, ½ – 1 tsp dried parsley, ¼ tsp onion powder, ¼ tsp garlic powder, ¾ tsp salt, ¼ tsp black pepper. Mix.   

Comments on last month’s article, Pointy Finger about having to communicate effusively through one’s mobile phone: Several writers just refuse to do it as their fingers a too large; one commented: “I don’t understand it. Why do some people insist on a large flat screen television, but spend all day on their tiny mobile phones?”  Several people hated to learn to type, but were grateful when computers came on the scene.  Some had never heard of onion skin (paper). Some loved the idea of typing to music.  One reader dreamed of an improved mobile phone: “One thing I wish for on the phone are backspace, forward, and up and down without deleting the text.” Many agreed with the blog.  Some enjoyed the recipe.

Thank you for your thoughts – keep them coming!