Behind the Curtain

What’s Going On

The Edinburgh Fringe Festival

The Edinburgh Fringe Festival started this past weekend and Marie and I will be there this coming weekend. To say we’re excited is an understatement. We have tickets for seven shows over four days ranging from Handbook of Civilian Defense (What Every Loyal American Can Do to Help the United States Win the War) to Stephen Sondheim’s Company. 

In addition, we’ve plans for visiting the Scottish Storytelling Centre. I’ll be posting on The Storytellers Channel’s Facebook page  , as well as, my own. 

Louise Penny

For 30 years, I’ve been having breakfast at Joe’s Inn in Richmond’s Fan District. The tradition started back in 1992 as a way for me to make sure I saw my mother at least once a week. This was right after my dad died and I was travelling a lot. Word got around and eventually it was not uncommon for a dozen people to be sitting around the table.

Momma died July 31 of last year, but the tradition of breakfast at Joe’s continues.

Most of us are avid readers and one of the joys this group has bought to my life has been Chief Inspector Armand Gamache. He is the fictious central character of a series of mystery novels set in the quaint little village of Three Pines by Canadian author, Louise Penny.  We are not the only ones who love Armand. He even has his own Wikipedia page

Here, directly from that Wiki page is why I love the Chief Inspector;

In How the Light Gets In, Penny writes that: “Armand Gamache had always held unfashionable beliefs. He believed the light would banish the shadows. That kindness was more powerful than cruelty, and that goodness existed, even in the most desperate places. He believed that evil had its limits”. In many of the books from Still Life onwards Gamache tells new detectives joining his team “four sayings that can lead to wisdom”: “I was wrong. I’m sorry. I don’t know. I need help”.

More of Gamache’s approach is shared in A Better Man, when he shares with one of his colleagues advice he himself was given at the start of his career: “Before speaking … you might want to ask yourself three questions … Is it true? Is it kind? Does it need to be said?”.

I’m working hard to adopt the Chief Inspector’s words.

Goodreads

As an avid reader, I use the app and website Goodreads to track what I’m reading and whenever I run across a book that piques my interest, I record it in the Want to Read Section. 

I’ve read over 150 books during 2020-21. My goal for 2022 was 52 books. I passed that last week. It looks like I’m on to another year of 70+ books. The downside is I’m not writing. My intention is to turn a draft of my book on storytelling into the publishers before Christmas. I’ll keep you posted.

Meanwhile I encourage you to check out Goodreads. Like Facebook, you can invite your friends to join, and you’ll get to see what they’re reading and read their reviews and recommendations, as well as, sharing your own. I thoroughly enjoy the community.

“We are, as a species, addicted to story. Even when the body goes to sleep, the mind stays up all night, telling itself stories.”

– Jonathan Gottschall, The Storytelling Animal

Featured Storyteller

Ilene Evans

Ilene told at Hearts Afire years ago and delighted us with Afro Appalachian Tales. Her home base is Voices from the Earth in Thomas, WV.

Check out her story, The Basil Tree.

Wayne Cain

I serve on the Vestry for The Church of The Holy Comforter in Richmond, VA. The vestry is the lay committee responsible for governing the parish. My role is maintaining the property. Currently, I’m dealing with upgrading the HVAC system, and replacing the kitchen ice maker and freezer both of which died within a week of each other.

But the highlight of my current concerns started a few weeks ago. It was a beautiful Sunday. We were sitting. Listening to the sermon. The sun was shining through the stained-glass windows. When suddenly, the sanctuary grew dark. A huge cloud had passed over the church. It was as dark as night and the rain began to pour. At first I was concerned, but then I settled into enjoying one of my favorite sounds: rain on the roof.
Marie and I sit in the last row of the church. From that vantage point I can easily slip in and out of the church should I be needed without disturbing the service. It was from this strategic position that I noticed a change in the “music” of the water on the rook. I knew immediately what I was hearing. I discretely slipped out and climbed the bell tower steps to the balcony, where I discovered they west facing stained-glass windows were a waterfall. Water was cascading down the glass and soaking the carpet.

I slipped back down stairs, and returned to my seat. By the time the service was over the storm had passed us by. I collected towels from the sacristy and soaked up the water. And then explained to the Senior Warden and our Priest, Hilary, that we had a problem.
Since then, I have met with several representatives of companies that create and repair stained-glass, which is why I found myself in Bremo Bluff, VA yesterday at the workshop of Wayne Cain Architectural Glass.

Wayne is a delightful fellow. He lives in an old farmhouse across from Grace Episcopal Church in what Google must consider the middle of nowhere as I rode around in circles for 20 minutes after having driven for an hour out into Fluvanna County before taking a chance and driving down an unmarked driveway.
His studio can best be described as something from the Hobbit. It is enchanting. Weathered wood covered in vines suggest a child’s hideaway. Inside, he works with Will and Scott, the future as he calls them.

I had arrived just before noon and the young men went off to lunch and Wayne gave me the tour. Other than the computers in the air conditioned office and the 1915 beveling machines we could have been in a 19th century craftsman’s studio.

After the nickel tour, we walked up the drive and stopped in the garden where he pulled a couple of ears of corn right off the stalk and a big ripe tomato off the vine. He explained how the flowers planted below the tomatoes kept bugs away. We tarried (one of Andy Offutt Irwin’s favorite words) for a few minutes delighting in the bees and the butterflies as they flitted from flower to bush.

We then strolled on up the house, and he made me a BLT, and microwaved the corn. I was transported back to my grandmother’s kitchen. We sat there telling stories of our youth and watching the birds dive bomb each other at the feeders and the bunnies scampering about the yard.

He asked, “Want to take a ride in the Miata?”

I thought, “Why not?” and after dropping the top, we sailed down the road to Fork Union Military Academy where he showed me the sained-glass windows they had restored and then we drove across the street to the Fork Union Baptist Church and looked at the work he’d done there, too.

We drove back to the farmhouse and before I could get into my car to drive home, he ran in the house and returned with a dozen fresh eggs gathered from the hens that morning.

Take a look at his website. I think you’ll be as impressed as I am.

I‘d Love to Hear from You

I need your ideas for the title of my show.

I look forward to your ideas.

Til next time, 

Gayle Turner
Executive Producer