RABBIT TRAILS: DISPATCHES FROM THE SHED
Updates, news and blog stories from around the Ted and Company universe.
In January of 2020, Ted & Company had a book release party and show. The book, Portraits From The Human Faces Tour, was created by Valerie Serrels, Steven Stauffer and me. The show was to become a part of the touring repertoire of Ted & Co. We succeeded in getting a grant to underwrite the tour, then planned a 10-15 show campaign. The Ted & Co office was gathering steam and momentum, the entire office I tell you! Both of us. And…here is where the performer holds the mic out to the audience and they sing the next lines, all together now…”The pandemic hit and all performances were canceled.” In late summer my wife Sue made a prescient suggestion, “ Why don’t you put that show on video to create an online product and we can sell those pallets of books in our basement?” A great idea. In August I…
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Since early September I have been living in my childhood home in Spring City, PA with my dad, who is in a gentle stage of dementia. I wanted to use this time of imposed sabbatical to work on some personal things, be present in his life and give breaks to my brother and his wife who live next door. As well, I have been cleaning out rooms and the basement, discovering a few gems but mostly decades of memories and fleetingly meaningful detritus. This time has been deep, occasional hilarious, and an exercise on being present in the moment. I’ve also dabbled in a new written form, with apologies to actual poets… Gospel During supper the gospel is proclaimed. Willie, Johnny and EmmyLou sing of grace and blood, and sacrifice. Prepared by care-giver for Dad. She, with a Menno background ‘Fallen away’ and returned, carrying life as a blessing and…
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Celtic theologian John Phillip Newell recently spoke at the virtual conference Beyond the Pandemic: How Shall We Live? He says, “Celtic spirituality invites us into a deeper awareness of the sacred in one another and all things.” He then noted a three-fold approach to this way of seeing: Let go of old ways of seeing that have failed to see and reverence the sacred in one another as races, as nations, as species, as religions. Reimagine new ways of seeing, or allow ourselves to dream of ways of seeing, living and relating we haven’t known before. Commit ourselves to beginning to live these new ways of seeing now as a way of preparing the foundations for a new day in our world. Recently I spent a week on a silent retreat (a first for me) at Red Point, Maryland, a block off the beach on the north neck of the Chesapeake Bay. Rabbit…
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Boredom. What does it mean to be bored and can we agree what it means? Is it okay to be bored? Are we missing something important if we’re bored? Are we missing something important if we’re NOT bored? If we don’t allow ourselves time for boredom, give our brains a rest? During this pandemic, in the midst of despair, grief, and touch deprivation, there is also boredom. There are a spate of resources cropping up to address this issue, including this one: I can’t imagine being bored, because apparently as an enneagram 7 I have a well honed ability to avoid boredom at all costs. * * What can be fascinating about the Enneagram is the gentle warm feeling when you are described in phrases that ring true and stroke the ego just a whisper. “ You enjoy talking enthusiastically about the ideas and possibilities that fill your head.” Yeah,…
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So it’s early May. In normal years, we would be 20 plus games into the baseball season. Yes I hear you, ‘Oh no, a sports related blog!’ But fear not friends, I will try not to bore you, however you are welcome to bail out at this point. Hmm, to bail out, a baseball term; The act of hurling your body backwards to avoid a pitch up and in. A very reptilian brain response to the imminent danger of a fastball thrown with either purpose or neglect, Bob Gibson or Sudden Sam Mcdowell. My life, since I was 8 or 9, has revolved around the rhythms of sports, first baseball, then football, followed by basketball. With a smattering of boxing, olympics and for a brief period in the early seventies, hockey. But the through line is baseball. My older brother Tim and I have a shorthand connection to many pieces…
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What’s the path forward for a theater company? A traveling theater company? A standing non-profit theater serving a small city? A moderately sized theater company employing 15 actors, director, designers? Broadway houses? A one woman vaudeville style traveling clown and puppet show? All of these questions have a similar answer. Hell if I know. In the last couple of weeks, in response to months of cancelizations, I have pivoted from touring for the foreseeable future toward creating a new project with partner Michelle Milne, co-actor in Ted and Company’s We Own This Now. We had been talking about the Enneagram for a couple of years while on the road with hosts, and also with friends and family members. It’s a fascinating, complicated, almost endless path in the attempt to understand ourselves and those we encounter in work, home, and social circles. Fascinating and complicated—yeah, like us. A year and a…
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