During the first week of ds106, I have been engaged in a personal contemplative experience – a journey up the Mississippi from Memphis to Minneapolis by car. The Mississippi River holds a long history of human lives, struggles, and culture that can’t be changed, erased, or cleaned up with building restorations or manicured waterfront. I photographed, made audio recordings, and drew my experiences in my journey daybook during this week. Swimming upstream has been difficult at times but I have learned many important personal and story telling lessons and gathered a lot of material that I can use to create digital stories in the future.
I set up all the necessary accounts I needed for ds106 over the summer, and my blog has been updated. This week, in addition to posting a daily create, I concentrated on my own journey to Minnesota by posting a chronicle of each day’s journey with the intention of making each day’s writing its own little story. Because this is not part of the ds106 week’s assignment, I didn’t tag these entries, but they can be viewed on my blog. I hope people will read and comment on this posts.
Tonight, in Minneapolis, I watched a PBS special program, “American Classics” highlighting Garrison Keillor, who is a personal story-telling hero of mine because of his similar age, his perspective of being close to the land and its people, and his ability to recount his stories in a relaxed, easy, and natural manner – without being self conscious, up-tight, or stiff. Keillor seems very comfortable in his own skin regardless of the fact that, physically, he does not look like a Hollywood actor. Furthermore, he does not conform to my image of a typical performer. Like the Mississippi River, Garrison Keillor and his storytelling practice is real, not ideal. Perhaps, I, too, will find the courage to expose myself in my less-than-perfect physicality by appearing on U-Tube.
