Storytelling Post: The Mouse, The Bird, and The Sausage

Once upon a rugby field there was a fly-half, an inside center, and an outside center.  In this rugby field the fly-half was essentially the quarterback, and she called all of the plays and lead the back line as the first ball carrier.  The inside center was the middle woman, she had the option to pass out to the outside or back in to the fly-half, she was quick and could run the ball without fail.  The outside-center was the quickest of the three, as the last in line when she got the ball it was ideal that she would break free and make long runs with the ball.  All three players worked together to form an excellent connection.  Their plays were spot on and they formed an excellent team on and off the pitch.

One day the fly-half went to an elite performance camp where she trained with coaches and players from all around the world.  When she came back to her inside and outside centers in the next match she tried to run the line utilizing plays she had learned while she was gone.  As the quarterback of the line her centers had no choice but to follow her lead.  However, with the new plays and new style of organization the two centers couldn’t predict passes like they usually could. 

As the match went on the fly-half would go on to botch passes to her centers that would lead to high tackles, ruined plays, and failed lines.  The weakness in the connection would ultimately lead to the ruin of the line and the failure of the team. 

My outside center, me (fly-half), and my inside center.
Post Game Photo

Authors Note:  This story is based on The Mouse,The Bird, and The Sausage.  The original story is about a mouse a bird and a sausage who all live together in a house.  The trio works together day in and day out to make the household work.   Each performs an individualized task that’s specialized to their particular skills.  At the end of each day their tasks come together to support one another and create a livable situation for the three of them.  Then one day the bird goes out to venture on his tasks and meets another bird.  The second bird convinces the first to go home and change the ways he organizes the household.  When the three try to change things without communicating they all die.  Seriously, that’s the ending, they all die.  My story took the more athletic and sports approach to the story.  In rugby a backline is players who all rely on knowing the skills and strengths of one another.  The flyhalf inside and outside connection is extremely important to the success of the line.  A team without a strong connection will not have a successful backline, and a team that doesn’t communicate will certainly fail. 

Bibliography:

Book- Fairy Tales by the Brother Grimm

Author- The Brothers Grimm

Year- 1912

Storytelling Week 11: Gold-Tree and Silver-Tree

Once upon a time there were two rugby players.  One player was a veteran, she had played for many years and her time was almost up.  The second was a rookie, the sun was just rising on her time and she was filled with promise and potential.  The two trained side by side day in and day out.  The veteran was so proud of her rookie.  She taught her everything she knew about the sport.  She taught her the social aspect and the physical skills, the emotional grit and the athletic prestige.  As the rookie learned more and more about rugby the sport took hold of her soul and she was determined to strive to be the best player on the pitch.

During one intense battle on the pitch a key moment in our story occurred.  The veteran got stepped.  Her opponent juked her out and broke away from the line.  The odds looked bleak and the veteran thought she had let someone go for a try on her.  However, at the last moment the rookie corner flagged the break away, and held up the try.  The vet was saved by the rookie.  The team was thrilled at the rookies efforts.  However, the veteran felt undermined for reasons unknown.

After the match at the social the veteran talked to the rookie.  She congratulated her on her success and efforts in the match.  The rookie gracefully accepted all her compliments and thanked her for being her mentor.  As the night went on the veteran’s feelings of contempt for the rookie’s fast developing skills were quelled.  She realized that her time was setting on the pitch but that her skills could be passed on through the new players to come.  She realized that teaching the rookie all she knew would preserve her legends on the pitch and that she would always be a rugger. 

Woman of the Match Austin 2015
Personal Photograph

Author’s Note:  This story is a loose post about Gold-Tree and Silver-Tree.  The story is a Celtic version of Snow White.  The story is essentially the same Snow White that all kids grow up hearing.  A mother gets jealous of her daughters beauty and then sets out to conspire against her.  I related my story to rugby because basically that’s all I ever think about.  However, when it comes down to it no one would ever conspire against his or her teammate like that in a rugby situation.  Rookies and Veterans have unique relationships because they teach one another different things.  Veterans pass on their knowledge and rookies bring their spirits to the pitch to make something new.  The image I used this week is from my own personal photographs.  My coach awarded me woman of the match this past weekend in Austin after our match against the Austin Valkyries.  

Book- Celtic Fairy Tales

Author- Joseph Jacobs

Year- 1892

Storytelling Post: Indian Fairy Tales Units

Once there was a boy living out free in the woods with his sister.  The brother and sister were free to roam around the wilderness as it pleased them.  Being so free and unattached the brother and sister had many splendid adventures together.  They went all around the country side and had collected a great number of tokens to commemorate their adventures. 

One of the boy’s most treasured tokens was his fur coat that his sister made for him from the pelts of the white rabbits.  The boy would wear the coat to remember how they had traveled far and long to reach the land of the white rabbits.  He recalled how the bounded through the snow and darted so quickly through the fresh powder that you could hardly keep track of them.  He would reflect fondly on how his sister taught him to set a snare to catch the rabbits. They had been able to make him a full coat to keep him warm against the sharp winter winds as they traveled back home.

The boy so loved to wear his coat that he wanted to pocket the sun.  If he could pocket the sun surely it wouldn’t be so warm, and then he could wear his coat all the time.  Then he would always think of the white rabbits, the snow and the snares, and he would always remember his good times with his sister.  So the young boy set out to capture and pocket the sun like they had once caught the rabbits.  He would catch the sun in a snare and pull it down to be pocketed. 

So finally the day came and the boy had made a rope long enough to reach the sun.  He threw it up with all his might, the winds carried it up to great heights and he had done it. The boy had snared the sun.  He pulled it down and set it in the pocket of his coat.  As the day went on however, he felt his coat get warmer and warmer, the sun was burning his coat and he had to act quickly.  The boy stripped off his coat and threw the sun back into the sky, however the sun caught on his coat and his coat went up as high as the sun was.  The heat from the sun burnt the threads connecting the furs together and they floated off separately to decorate the sky.  This is how the sky came to have clouds as white as rabbits. 

Authors Note:  This week I really struggled with a storytelling post idea.  Finally I just hammered this out on the premise that it was based on my favorite story from the unit.  The original story was about a boy and his sister.  The sister makes the boy a coat out of birds that he had killed all on his own, the boy wanted to snare the sun to keep his coat from shrinking.  However, in the original story the boy never got the sun because the animals thwarted his plans.  The original post told how the mouse came to be so small.  Initially the mouse was the largest of all animals which is why he could cut the rope.  As he was cutting the rope he lowly burned away until he was the smallest of all animals.  

Image from Santa Banta

The Boy who Snared the Sun 

Book American Indian Fairy Tales 

Author W.T. Larned

Year 1921

Storytelling Eskimo Folk Tales

Book Eskimo Folk Tales

Author Knud Rasmussen

Year 1921

Once upon a time in a land not so far away a young woman longed to be a mother.  The young woman lived in the woods all by her lonesome with no one to keep her company.  She ran out everyday to collect food, water, to hunt, and to search for someone to keep her company.  The woman watched the animal families run about and every spring she watched as the various animals became mothers, and she envied them for their children. 

One spring the young woman ran out to hunt for the day and she encountered a small wolf pup.  The pup was small in size, so small that he was likely the runt of the litter left out to die on his own.  The young woman scooped up the pup and took him in for herself.  She decided then and there that she would raise the pup on her own, that he would keep her company and she would no longer be alone.

Over the years the young woman, who was now a young mother became closer and closer to her newly fostered son.  The pup grew swift and strong.  She taught him the ways of the woods.  She taught the pup how to hunt as soon as he was able so that they might share the daily load of the work to be done.  The pup grew into a wolf, and as he grew so did his skills for hunting.  He began to go after bigger and bigger prey.  The woman was pleased with her sons efforts, and as he continued to hunt larger animals he too grew larger, the cycle was seemingly endless.

The young pup was no more and now the old woman had a full grown wolf with her.  She knew that he had to go out and be free to explore for himself.  For one day soon she would be gone.  She remembered how lonely she felt before finding her pup.  One night when the wolf came home from his hunt the woman told him that he must find someone else to hunt with and find a family on his own.  She explained that soon she would be gone from this world and that she would be walking amongst the stars.  The wolf obeyed, knowing his mother was wise and meant only to look out for him.  He ran out on his own in search of a family to provide for, still every now and then he howls towards the stars and the moon, knowing his mother is out there listening. 

Black Wolf Pup
Image from Wikipedia

Authors Note

This storytelling post is based on the Woman who had a Bear as a Foster Son. In the original story an old woman in a village is brought a bear cub and told to raise it as her own.  The bear grows big and strong and provides game for the whole village.  In the end of the story the bear is thought to have killed someone in a neighboring village and the mother must send him away for protection.  I made some changes to this story to see how it could be perceived through another perspective. 

Storytelling Week Seven: The Monkey King

Keep Calm
Image taken from: keep calm-o-matic

Under the bright lights, with a booming bass, mirror reflections all around, a tint of chalk floating around the room, and an aroma of the sweat of hard work a show down was beginning in the gym.   The New Year had just begun and everyone was gearing up to one up one another’s gains.  After all, fitness is clearly something that you see instantaneous change in, results simply pour in. (Lie)

Paleo dieters squared off against those who merely clean ate.  Their plates transforming at every turn to see who’s diet was more bearable.  The comparison of do not eat lists was brutal.  Individuals tried to bend the rules and change their diets piece by piece in order to seem like they had found the key to tummy tuck success.

Cardio versus cross fit versus weight lifting, cross training, class takers, personal training, circuit doers, running programs.  All different kinds of workout styles were attempted as our gym goers searched for the perfect means for change. 

All of these programs worked to serve one goal.  To morph the body into the next best weapon, to get ready for that upcoming progress picture.  Flex Friday was more than an instagram hashtag, this was war, a battle of the best, an essential war of the workouts. 

Author’s Note:  This week I read The MonkeyKing.  My favorite chapter in this story was called Yang Oerlang. In this chapter the Monkey King is fighting Yang Oerlang to see who is the better fighter and shifter.  As they fight all they are doing is manipulating their form as they try to one up another to pick the most effective form for battle.  For example, when one turns into a bird the other will become a hawk, then one will turn to a fish and the other turns into a fish-hawk, then a water snake and so on and so forth.  I thought this somewhat related to the ways people will change their workout routines in an effort to out do someone else.  The concept of changing one’s workout for mere gains is rather dangerous and it should be emphasized that I by no means promote the implementation of extreme training shifts or extreme dieting.  I advocate for a clean eating lifestyle and routine physical training.  However, it is important to find a workout that your body enjoys and to stick with it.  Find your form, find what makes you fight best, and stick with it.        

Bibliography:

Story- The Ape Sun Wu Kung

Book- The Chinese Fairy Book

Author- R Wilhem

Year- 1921

Storytelling Week Five: Twenty Two Goblins

There was once a beautiful young woman who lived in a village just like all others.  The woman was beautiful beyond comparison and there was no other to match her likeness.  As will often happen with beautiful young women, many fell in love with her.  In particular there were three suitors who took an exceptional interest in the woman.

However, tragedy struck and the woman fell to a horrible disease.  There was never any indication of who would have won over the woman’s heart.  Between the three suitors all were of equal wealth, knowledge, and talent.  However, all three mourned for her in very different ways.

The first suitor had fallen in love with her mind.  Therefore to commemorate her death he traveled far and wide seeking to attain higher knowledge. 

The second had fallen in love with her virtue.  Therefore, in efforts to preserve her purity he raised her name to the heavens so that she could remain blessed.

The third had fallen in love with her.  Not with any one specific attribute, the third suitor loved her so whole-heartedly that his world was black in her death.  He mourned by living at the cemetery where she rest, begging for a living.

When the woman’s family came to give away her worldly possessions they found a letter written in their daughter’s script “To My Love”.  Surely the letter was for one of the three suitors but they couldn’t determine which.  After seeing the ways in which they mourned they determined it could be only the third suitor.  As he loved their daughter in all accounts and did not see her as one-dimensional, rather he saw her in all aspects of life as beautiful.       

Author’s Note:  This story is loosely based on TheThree Lovers from my story unit this week.  In the original story the story of the three lovers is introduced by a goblin.  The goblin is telling the story to a King as part of a riddle.  In the original story the first suitor uses his knowledge to bring the woman back to life and the problem of who she should marry arises.  The King answers the riddle by analyzing the means by which each man grieved for the loss of the woman.  He answered the man who lay by her grave, because he mourned for her as a lover should.  The King was correct in his answer.  Although, I think there should have been somewhat more of a debate about the matter.  I rewrote my story without the woman coming to life in the end because I think if I were the third suitor I wouldn’t want to disturb the dead.  People often pose the theory that if we could wake the dead that they would be different.  I think it is best that they remain passed on and therefore didn’t bring her back in my story. 

Bibliography:

Twenty Two Goblins 

Arthur W. Ryder 

1917

Grave Angel Weeping