Included Below: Patient Virtues / Stillness and Action / Radio Rental / Waiting / Storytime. Click HERE for further information about this newsletter. To those from before and those who are new-
I. WELCOME
Patience is a virtue.
I was in line at the grocery store standing behind a man doing what I call ‘the modern dance.’ He was fidgeting non-stop, moving with sharp movements from checking his phone to shifting from one foot to the other, to opening his backpack to checking his phone again and so on and so forth.
I like to observe people’s behaviour out in the wild. I say observe, not judge. Okay, sometimes judge. Judgement is underrated and can be fun. It’s a game I play when I’m waiting - trying to guess what thoughts are going through someone’s mind based on their behaviour. What led up to them crossing my path, and where they will go from here?
My writing mentor Wayson taught me to always pay attention to your surroundings. The more you are aware of what’s happening around you, the more you can witness and understand that drama and conflict and other elements of the human condition are microscopically and constantly unfolding right in front of your eyes. It’s also a good anecdote to boredom and the frustration of having to do things outside of your control like waiting in line.
The Fidgety Man couldn’t handle it anymore. He went to use one of the self-checkout kiosks. It kept malfunctioning or he kept using it incorrectly, whatever, it wasn’t working and only adding to his frustration. I checked out with a person, everything got scanned, paid, packed, and passed The Fidgety Man on my way out where he was not even halfway done.
As I passed The Fidgety Man, who looked like he was ready to put his fist through that machine, I empathized with his desperation. See, I imagined that over the last few months, his marriage has been slowly falling apart. Nothing big happened, no one cheated or anything like that. Just slowly over time, he felt her slipping away. So, he planned to make a big elaborate and romantic dinner as a surprise for when his wife got home from work. He started cooking and realized that to make this particular dish, he needed a specific ingredient that he forgot to get earlier. He dashed here to the grocery store, pots boiling back at home on the stovetop, and was desperately trying to check out and pay for this special ingredient. He wasn’t just in a hurry, his entire marriage relied on getting out of this grocery store as quickly as possible. Wayson was right - high drama is alive in everyday interactions.
Q - What do you think about when you’re waiting?
II. TALES FROM THE DREAM ROOM
Each month welcomes an exclusive story from a parallel world.
The Dream Room is a place that where everything is interconnected. The sights and sounds and people that inhabit this world feel familiar. The tales pulled from the Dream Room are sometimes true and sometimes fiction, they may scare you or make you laugh. The Dream Room is a place not to be taken lightly and if you’re ready to enter, read the excerpt below and click on the link for the full story.
THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN STILLNESS AND ACTION: “Most people that travel with me don’t make it to the other side.”
“That is good to know,” I said.
“It’s not my responsibility that people make bad choices. I am responsible for myself. There are moments to be still and there are moments for actions. Give me your attention and I will help you figure out to know the difference. Most people don’t.”
I stepped on the raft and he pointed to handles where I can hold on. I didn’t understand his concern until we pushed off. The calm water exploded into rapid-like thundering waves. I basically lay down face first on the raft, hands on handles. He snapped his fingers at me - he didn’t talk, it felt like his voice was in my head: “Give me your attention. Be still.”
The waves grew larger and we went almost vertically up and down them. I held on for my life. My arms and shoulders and neck were sore from straining to remain on the raft. White knuckled. Meanwhile, Santa stood upright and didn’t seem to be having any trouble staying that way.
His voice popped into my head again: “Allow yourself to communicate with the waves. Flow with them. Fighting against them gives them strength. You have to stand up because there’s something I need you to do.”
Read the whole story at this link.
Q - Was there ever a moment that you had to do exactly the opposite to what your instincts demanded?
III. PAUL’S PICKS.
A recommendation of something watched, read, or listened to.
It’s spooky season, so let’s get spooky. For obvious reasons, I’m pretty picky when it comes to storytelling podcasts. I’m even pickier with scary and/or horror podcasts. When an especially odd tale comes directly from the person who experienced it, well, you can’t beat that.
Radio Rental is one of those rarest of podcasts - well produced (but not over produced), the storytellers are all pretty engaging due to good direction (the interviewer stays out of it), and it packages the stories in a high concept that makes sense. The podcast actually walks a pretty tight balancing act tonally between absurdity, comedy, and deadly serious topics. It’s hosted by Terry Carnation (played by Rainn Wilson, aka Dwight Schrute from The Office), a proprietor of a VHS video rental store. The stories on the podcast are from his secret collection of tapes.
It took me two or three episodes to really believe that these stories were real. Some of them are quite out there. From doppelgängers to creepy experiences with other people to brushes with serial killers to real life ghosts - some of these really made me look over my shoulder. And sometimes it’s not the big serial killer stuff that is the scariest - it’s the small instances when reality shifts a bit to the left that leaves you unsettled.
I have been waiting for a new batch of episodes. The wait is over. A new one just dropped yesterday. Get more info on the show HERE and listen wherever you get podcasts.
Q - Any good scary podcasts that you’d recommend? Remember, I’m picky.
IV. FROM THE ARCHIVES.
An old story brought to you in a new way.
Wow, this was from a looooooonnnnnnggggggg time ago. I’d like to think that my writing has gotten better over the years, and sometimes it is terrifying to revisit really old posts. But, this one fits within the theme of this month’s newsletter, so here it is!
WAITING (OCTOBER 2011): I’ve never owned a car before, and as I put my new purchase in gear, I wondered about all the time I spent waiting for a bus, streetcar or subway. Slow buses due to weather or traffic. Streetcars lined up in winter like slow-moving seniors because someone parked too far from the curb, leaving too little room for the streetcar to pass. Delayed subways because someone jumped, all of us standing on the platform, frustrated in our lateness, unable to comprehend what caused this person to make that decision, but rarely thinking about it, focused solely on our own superfluous problems.
Some people say it’s worth the wait. But is it? And what’s ‘it’? Others say, I can’t wait! But isn’t patience a virtue? And is it really a virtue? There are people who have waited to turn that friend into a lover. Does it ever happen? And if it does, does it ever really work? Waiters wait on tables in high-end restaurants. On film sets, the old cliché goes: hurry up and wait. Would you make up your mind? Do I ‘hurry’ or do I ‘wait’? You would get yelled at when not hurrying and ridiculed for impatience. The adult contemporary singer Richard Marx had this rock ballad hit in 1989 (look at that hair!) and he's probably still right here waiting for you:
Read the whole story at this link.
Q - What are you waiting for?
V. WATCH, LISTEN, READ, OR DO.
Something to take with you.
New podcast episode alert! I might’ve mentioned that I have a new book out and I haven’t really figured out what to do with it. The good news is that something exciting is in the works! Can’t say anything right now.
As I’ve also mentioned, I had a lot of time on my hands last year, and so decided to figure out how to do an audiobook. I did all the recordings and edited the stories - yeesh, listening to myself that long was probably not healthy at the time. I was excited because some of the stories originated at Stories We Don’t Tell, so I thought it could be a fun mix of in-studio stories and live performances.
I finally got around to uploading the audiobook using the Amazon platform and it is so ridiculously clunky and terrible to use that I gave up. It seems that Amazon didn’t like the live performance audio files. But, I liked them and I wanted to include them. I was planning on posting some of the stories on my podcast as excerpts as an incentive to purchase the audiobook. But, screw it, and screw Amazon, I decided to just release all the stories on my podcast.
So, I lied on the podcast. In the introduction, I reference the audiobook, but there is no audiobook. And honestly, I am just too lazy to redo all that. And really, I think it’s kind of funny to talk about an audiobook when there is no audiobook.
This part might feel familiar because I basically wrote all the same thing back in August. But, there really are six new stories posted right over HERE, so check them out. You can also get more info on the podcast HERE, and listen and subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Some people have said that I have a compelling way to present stories, and others have said I have a great voice to fall asleep to - you can decide!
Q - You all know how much I love podcasts - what is your absolute favourite one. One that you can’t wait until they post a new episode?
You’ve probably noticed that I’ve included a question at the end of each section. No, this isn’t required homework. However, if you are compelled to write to me with your thoughts, I would love to hear from you. Who knows, I might even share some of the answers in future newsletters (anonymously, of course). Email me here: jpd@pauldore.com.
September 2021 Edition: Changes / Symphony of Destruction / Guys We F***ed / Turbulence / Resources.