Matthew Dicks's Blog, page 422

May he always be this happy

   

Speak Up storyteller: John Leahy

John Leahy works at CT valley electric exchange (Convex) supervising the electric power grid for the State of Connecticut. He spent almost 9 years in the United States Nuclear submarine service.

Married to my wife Alisa, they have father of three daughters. He enjoys golfing, running, traveling and fine Irish whiskey. He was born in New York City and lives in Rocky Hill.

The Moth: The Tyranny of the 10-Speed Bike

The following is a story that I told at a Moth StorySLAM at The Oberon in Boston in May of last year. 

The theme of the night was Envy.

I told a story about the realization of the limitations of poverty.

I finished in first place.

Is this generation of grandparents different than previous generations, or is this bald, bespectacled man just unusual?

My son is less than two years old and already has a great relationship with his grandparents. He loves them a great deal. He especially loves playing with his Gramps, who is the kind of guy who will play with my children for a very long time without ever getting bored.

My daughter is almost five years-old, and she has been over the moon for her grandparents ever since she was a baby. She asks to see them all the time and throws herself into their arms every time they arrive.

She and Gramps are also quite capable of playing together for hours.

   

I wish I had shared a similar relationship with my grandparents. My mother’s parents were wonderful people who lived until I was in my twenties, and though I spent a great deal of time with them as a child, I don’t ever remember them as being playful, silly, overly affectionate or indulgent.

My father’s mother died when I was very little, and though I lived next door to my father’s father for my entire childhood, I can’t even remember getting a hug from him. He was a quiet, stoic, perpetually busy man.

Was this simply a generation of people who did things a different way? Men and women who lived through the Great Depression and World War II and saw the world through a more somber, reticent lens? 

Do the majority of the grandparents today behave similarly to my grandparents, or are my wife’s parents blessedly unusual?

I’m not sure.

Either way, my father-in-law has shown me what the relationship between a grandfather and his grandchildren can be, and I will not forget it when it comes time for me to be a grandfather.

Speak Up storyteller: Andrew Mayo

Our next Speak Up storytelling event is on Saturday, January 18, at 8:00 at Real Art Ways in Hartford.

Tickets can be purchased online here or purchased at the door, provided that we don’t sell out prior to Saturday.

This week we introduce you to the storytellers who you will be hearing from on Saturday night.

Hope to see you there!
_______________________________

Andrew Mayo received a Bachelor’s Degree from Princeton University, a Certificate in Jazz and Popular Music Performance from the Hartford Conservatory, a Master’s in Music Education from the Hartt School at the University of Hartford and a 6th year certificate in Educational Leadership from Central Connecticut State University. His teaching career began with Teach for America in Brooklyn, New York in 1990. He is now the Supervisor for the Department of Fine and Performing Arts for West Hartford Public Schools.

Besides teaching, Andrew is also an avid songwriter and composer, and has written a mix of classical, pop, rock, and folk music for many different projects. Credits include soundtracks for children’s radio (Captain 5-A-Day) and TV show pilots (Let’s Go Mathing), as well the lullaby CD Miracle, created for St. Francis hospital. His rock opera The Clowns was staged in January 2013 at Playhouse on Park in West Hartford, and his next project, a musical for tweens called The Tweets, will be workshopped in July, 2014. Samples of his music can be found at www.andymayomusic.com, www.soundcloud.com/andymayomusic, and www.soundcloud.com/andymayomusicthetw.... Andrew lives with his wife and three children in West Hartford.

Advancements in medical technology are amazing. I dread every one of them.

My brother had a root canal last week.

Unfortunately, I have some experience with root canals. When I was 17 years old, I was in a car accident that dislodged my entire bottom row of teeth. Doctors wired the row back down, losing one one in the process, and the teeth remarkably took root again. Unfortunately, they are now more naturally prone to problems as a result of the trauma.

So far two have required root canals.

My first root canal took place in 1993. It was a three day process which required the dentist to drill a hole through my tooth down to the nerve and then pack the tooth with a filling. Each time filling was added, he would pack it down until the filling pressed against the nerve and caused me pain, at which point I was required to raise my hand to tell him that he had reached the level that caused pain.

I couldn’t receive Novocain or any other pain suppressor because the dentist needed to know when it hurt in order to do the job. 

This went on for almost two hours. It was awful. It hurt like hell for days and days later.

My second root canal took place in 2006. Elysha and I were in Bermuda on our honeymoon, and during the last day of the trip, my tooth began to ache. By the time we arrived home, it was hurting badly, and the dentist determined that a root canal was needed.

This root canal took less than an 45 minutes and was entirely pain free.

I hugged the dentist when he was done. I nearly cried.

I should be grateful to live in a time when medical advancements have transformed a painful, three day process into a simple, 45 minute procedure. Every day scientists takes steps closer to  eradicating disease, extending lifespan and improving our overall well being.

I should be thrilled. 

It’s entirely the opposite.

Each medical (or dental) advance reminds me of how many more breakthroughs are yet to come. I’m reminded about how human lifespan will continue to be extended, as it has been for centuries, and how I might miss out on this future progress unless I continue to avoid death.

I appreciate these advancement in medical technology, but I worry that they are not  coming fast enough. One of my greatest fears is that scientists will develop an anti-aging serum a week or two after I die.

There may even come a day when human immortality is a possibility, either physically or by means of downloading our consciousness onto a computer. I know it sounds like a pipe dream, but it really isn’t. Scientists are working on these technologies right now.

If the human race achieves some form of immortality a day or two after I have died, I ‘m going to be very annoyed.

iPad in an oven

Maybe he was worried that I was going to take it away.

Speak Up storyteller: Chris Hall

Our next Speak Up storytelling event is on Saturday, January 18, at 8:00 at Real Art Ways in Hartford.

Tickets can be purchased online here or purchased at the door, provided that we don’t sell out prior to Saturday.

This week we introduce you to the storytellers who you will be hearing from on Saturday night.

Hope to see you there!
_______________________________

Chris Hall is an aerospace engineer by day and an amateur storyteller by night. He can occasionally be seen in Hartford telling tales of his family in Other People’s Stories, and is excited to finally tell a story about himself for a change.

When he is not on stage, Chris enjoys running, volleyball, soul music, and New York style pizza. Originally from Long Island, NY, he now resides in Vernon, CT.

Water fountain failure

Failure has never looked so cute.

It also reminds me of the time when I was student teaching and asked my first grade line leader to stop at the bubbler.

She continued walking down the hallway, slowing down with every step. By the time I caught up with her, she was in tears.

“What’s wrong?” I asked. “Why didn’t you stop at the bubbler?”

“I don’t know what a bubbler is?” she wailed.

In Massachusetts, where I grew up, it’s a bubbler. According to the map below, it’s a bubbler in Wisconsin, too.

In Connecticut, it’s a water fountain.

Do I know Dan Kennedy?

I have read two of Dan Kennedy’s three books. I own the third and will read it soon.  

  

I follow him on Twitter and read his tweets daily.

I read his work in McSweeney’s.

I have listened to him tell true stories from his life, both on stage and recorded.

I have seen him host many Moth events, where he often shares bits from his life as well as his reactions to the stories.

I’ve spoken to him in person on many occasions at Moth events.

My question is this:

Do I really know Dan Kennedy?

I’m not sure.

I think I know Dan Kennedy, but I find myself wondering what would happen if Dan and I were to  spend a weekend together. Would I discover that I didn’t really know him at all? Would I find myself liking him more or less than his public facing persona?

Is the Dan Kennedy who I know and love the real, honest-to-goodness version of Dan Kennedy that his friends and family know?

In this age of media, it’s easy to think that you can know a person by immersing yourself in their content, particularly when they produce a great deal of it across multiple platforms.

The same holds true for me. If a reader has read all of my novels, reads my blog regularly, follows me on Twitter and Facebook and has listened to me tell stories for The Moth similar organizations (live or recorded), do they really know me?

I’m not sure.

Do they know me better than an actual friend or family member who sees me once every couple months or only during the holiday season?

I have a friend named Gary. I’ve known him for at least twenty years. I’ve spent long stretches of time with him, including a road trip to Florida more than decade ago. Today, I see Gary a few times a year. He judges my annual science fair at school. We spend an occasional weekend together. I see him at parties and cookouts. We might play poker or golf together or attend a Patriots game with some mutual friends. 

Gary doesn’t read my blog. As far as I know, he hasn’t read any of my books. He doesn’t follow me on Twitter. He doesn’t use Facebook. He’s never seen or heard me tell a story onstage.

I’m not sure of he even knows that I am a storyteller.

Does Gary know me better than someone who I have never met but who consumes my written and spoken content regularly and interacts with me through social media?

I think maybe not.

I suspect that the person who immerses him or herself in my content and communicates with me regularly through social media might actually know me better than Gary.

But does that person know the real me?

Is my book/blog/social media/storytelling persona my true persona?

I like to think so, but maybe not. I’m not sure.

Here’s my hypothesis:

The person who knows me through my content probably knows me better than Gary. For the same reason, I may know Dan Kennedy better than I know Gary. But I have no idea what the combination of me and Dan Kennedy would yield.

Dan Kennedy is like a chemical compound that I have studied closely. I know a great deal about his color, consistency and chemical composition. But I don’t know how Dan Kennedy’s chemical compound would react when combined with my own. Would we integrate seamlessly into some new, more glorious compound? Would one compound consume the other? Would we separate like oil and water? Would we explode?

I may not know Gary’s chemical compound quite as well, but I know how we fit together. I know how we interact. I know that when we come together, as infrequently as that may be, Gary’s chemical compound and my own will react well together.

All will be well.

Though I don’t see Gary often and rarely speak to him unless we are doing something together, I know that we work well together.

I think this is the real difference between knowing someone in real life and knowing someone through social media and their content. It’s not a question of knowing the real person. It’s a question of knowing how you and that person would get along in the real world.

I suspect that Dan Kennedy and I would combine just as well as Gary and me, but I don’t know for sure. I can’t know for sure. I only know the side of Dan Kennedy that faces the public. There may be other parts of his chemical compound puzzle that I don’t know well and wouldn’t combine with me at all. 

Do I know Dan Kennedy as well as I think?

I don’t even think Dan Kennedy could answer this question.