In September I made my yearly pilgrimage to Utah to attend the Annual (36th) Timpanogos Storytelling Festival with my dear friend and former library colleague Lori Snyder, now a Utah resident.
Lori and I have been doing this for several years now, so we are establishing a tradition. The Festival has become her perpetual birthday present to me. And what a gift it is! — a weekend packed with stories from morning ’til night. It fills my soul, lifts my spirit in ways that nothing else can. Whatever difficulties are happening around me are suspended, put on hold, allowing me to escape and reconnect with what’s really important. When the last story is told, I breathe a sigh—a sigh of sadness that it’s over, mixed with gratitude for our time in the magical world of stories.
As always, my very favorite teller, Donald Davis, was featured, as well as Bil Lepp (yes, Bil with one “l”), who also has become a favorite. There were tellers I’d never heard before and some I had the opportunity to enjoy again. They told personal and traditional stories, and some very, very tall tales. They made us laugh and cry and think.
And it isn’t only the veteran tellers who are memorable. I am always impressed with the teen storytellers who are the “opening acts.” I admire their poise and courage. They are truly rising stars. One, Ender Rasmussen, left me with this — “The sparrow was so focused on how far he had to go, he forgot to look at how far he’d come.” I love the bigger truths that stories can reveal. As storyteller and musician Rev. Robert Jones says, “The stories are true whether they happened or not.”
While I was at the Festival, I found a song from Fiddler on the Roof — “Tradition! Tradition!” — playing in my head. Screenwriter and film director Randall Wallace calls storytelling “the greatest activity of any culture.” It’s an age-old tradition, an oral one. One that has existed since the beginning of time, before we started drawing on cave walls or cutting words into stone. One that will never leave us as long as humans exist. It’s in our very nature to tell stories. Stories are us. I think God gave us stories because he knew we’d need them. I know I do.
If you have the opportunity to attend a storytelling event, go for it. You won’t be sorry.
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Scattered throughout the beautiful outdoor venue at the Festival were placards with marvelous quotes. Here are a few. Enjoy!
