A Talking Book (Part 1)

Well, hello again. This is Dick Foth with Stories from the Road. And we haven't chatted like this, or I haven't chatted like this in about six weeks. And the reason is we have something going on that we're going to tell you about in this podcast and in the next one. And I'm delighted to be joined by Ben Clements and Eugene Oregon, a son-in-law, and grateful for him. Hey, Ben, how are you? I'm doing great. Is it raining in Eugene this morning? It is. This is the season. Well, the fact is that this past weekend, which would have been the weekend of the 15th, the ducts one, and that's all Eugene care about. He cares about, is it? That's what we care about. Times to you. So we're going to be doing podcast, presenting podcasts now through the end of the year, every week, or every few days, whatever. And I want to talk in these next couple of podcasts, this one and the next one. I want to talk about the idea that's close to my heart and yours, I believe. And that's the idea of story and stories. And folks who have listened to these podcasts know we talk about that, a fair amount. But there's this very interesting idea that story does something in our lives that nothing else really does. It comes at us in a way that nothing else does. When I say story to you, what is it that comes to mind that you think about or that you feel? I think one of the first, I first probably grew up 17 years old, I met you. And so I've been listening to you tell story for the better part of almost 40 years now. So kind of grew up in that way. But I remember a day where I was outside of that relationship down in California with Erica, we were in a huge ballroom of people that were all sort of music, pastor type people. And we were having lunch and the guy got up to announce that a lady was going to come up and tell a story. And I scoffed because you know, you don't put a storyteller why people are clinking their dishes, eating their cheesecake, like it's not going to work. No one's going to quiet down. And they've been in sessions all morning long. And this is their only break. But I was shocked and still remain to this day, how penetrating when she started talking, telling this story about how God had a library that people could come to to meet with him every day. You could hear a pin drop within a few minutes. And I think what I learned in that moment is I don't know what I'm doing. And she was brilliant. But something about story, I think our lives are a story. They're all about relationships. That's what makes us tick. And when I get to have insight into that, my insights are longing for that truth, that comfort, that strength. And when someone tells a story, especially a true story, obviously, it changes the atmosphere of my life. And in that day, it changed the atmosphere of the room. And it has power. I always say it has a power to place, to go to a place that nothing else can get. And in a very quick order of time, it gets to my emotions, not just my intellect. And that's a big deal. You know, there are two quotes that Ruth and I used in that book, back in the day that we were called, known, finding deep friendships in the shallow world. One was by a mystery writer or a sci-fi writer, by the name of Ursula Caelig-Winn. And I won't try to quote the whole thing, but this is one thing, she says. There have been great civilizations that did not have the wheel, but there have been no civilizations that did not tell stories. Because stories carry truth and tradition and a history, oral history, from one generation to the next. And then another writer, Madeline Langle, and talking about Jesus, it's that Jesus was not a theologian. He was God who told stories. I think that's a fascinating kind of thing. And when you look at the Gospels, the Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, when you get to Matthew 13, which is a big a big section of that gospel that talks about stories, it says that there wasn't anything that he taught them in a long afternoon and evening. There wasn't anything he taught them that was not told in story form. And again, that's a both paraphrase. He whatever was of import that he wanted them to know, or not know, obscure it from them. He told in story form. And I grew up listening to family stories, listening to guys who came through and told stories of their adventures and all of that. And it's been now a couple of years, maybe even three years. When Ruth and I were working on the idea of another book, we had we had written one back in the 1990s called When the Giant Lies Down. And then by the way, that one almost put our marriage under because I did the writing and Ruth did the editing. And she'd say, we need to take that out and say, well, yeah, but I want to say it like that. And so put a lot of attention. We made it and we did this other one in 2017 called No I'm Finding Deep Friendships in the shallow world. And so we've been encouraged to think about another one. So we had worked on this for I don't know year, we had 75 ideas of phrases and things. And in a conversation with you and a couple of other family members, you had a thought. And that's where I want to go with the rest of this podcast. And then the next one, tell our listeners what your thought was. Well, I was making an observation. My observation was that in my years of knowing you being with you in places, people will always come up to you and say that message you preached. And you told that story about this or that. And guys with men would cry in front of you and say, and it changed my life. I'm just like, what in the world is this about? It's crazy. Like I preach a little and no one ever says that to me. And so I observed that you have this capacity to connect with people, an audience, a congregation by framing things in story. And I also noted that over the years that you're writing style and you're speaking style are not the same. And because you're in my opinion, you're like an artist when you tell a story. You'll do a little spot up in the top corner with some green and a little hue there. And then you'll come down to the left hand side and do some brownish tones. You'll start to paint a picture. And by the time you're done, I've seen videos of people who draw things you can't tell what they're drawn by the time you're done, this beautiful portrait has happened. And I feel that way when you tell story, you kind of just touch here and touch there and tell it in a little piece of information here. And by the time you're done, you have put me into a location and a time and a place. And I call that the sort of sweet buttery goodness of Dicphal storytelling. Like you just you you trap us, you get us into that moment by giving us detail and insight and passion and humor. And so I just thought, you know what, if if the struggle and you're a great writer, that's not the issue. But if the struggle is there, let's have you do the thing that you do the best. And let's try to capture it. And we had you had sent me actually the Malcolm Gladwell book that he did on the life of Paul Simon. And I'm not of Paul Simon fan. I am now after watching reading that book or listening to that book because it only came out in audio form. And it just kind of gave us license to say, what if we did, what if we recorded you and put it in an audiobook form. And that's where it came from. Just the idea of why don't you just tell story for the rest of your life. And if you want to write, write. But boy, why don't you do that? Why don't you? Because that's the thing that people, you know, when you have a talent, people recognize it. And you don't you don't have to say I have this talent. People just know. And they're usually excited about it. And God gave you a particular gift. And so I think that's kind of where we went with this. Let's just try and see what happens. So so when you describe that painting, you know, you say a little early, you don't think that's just the gift we're going off on tangents and rabbit trails because that's what Ruth might. You know, it very well could be, but it might also be a superpower because I think that kind of ability of a mind to keep all that together is a superpower. On the basis of that, about two and a half years ago now, or a couple of years ago, we decided to try an experiment. And the experiment was to do an evening of storytelling. And that was that that was sort of your your impetus. And evening of storytelling, where we just stand up like like a stand up comic would and just tell stories. And I'm saying, how in the world am I going to do that? I mean, you know, do I need them on a teleprompter? Do I need them? Scripted and you said no. And I said, well, how do I remember? My contention was that I've seen you do it almost all the time we're together. And it usually happens at a red robin, you know, dinner table or it happened at the prayer breakfast sitting around in the lobby there that you tend to, I would say it in this way, hold court, but it's like you start talking and people don't want you to stop because you start weaving true stories and insight. And it's usually thoughtful things. And it's usually funny things. And so I thought you probably could do it because you do it all the time like you go from thing to thing in a conversation with friends around the table. Actually, that's one of the best times to sit with you is to be in a place where human communication, there's been bread broken and there's been food, you know, and then we start talking and that becomes the richness. Well, you know, a couple of years ago we were here at the house and I was just, you know, I was just rambling like like that. And by the way, for those of you listening to this, this is the little awkward for me to be talking about me in this way, okay? But we were sitting around the table and I was just going off and telling stories, isn't that the other in Ruth, who actually thinks before she speaks leaned over to a friend of hers who is also rather quiet, like he is more contemplative in a stage whisper. She said, I wonder what it must be like to have to speak every thought that comes into your mind. That's her way of saying, can we put a frame around this picture and get on with apple pie or whatever it is? But that was interesting because you're used to doing production things and all of that. And I'm saying, how can I remember these? Where I am. There needs to be some track, some linear track. And you said, well, James Taylor, when he does concerts, he sits down and puts the piece of cardboard down and just puts words for the songs he wants to sing. And so you had me do that. And I just put a piece of cardboard on the floor. I think I stayed pretty close to it. But anyway, that ended up being what we called the first volume of, I think, might be an audiobook series. And that came out about a year ago. And it was called Stories I Love to Tell. And some of our little team would come up with this title. Stories I love to tell, to give us hope, help us do hard things, and bring us back together again. And why don't you kind of describe that evening? And again, that's available, I think, audible and audiobooks, Spotify and all the outlets. You can even borrow it from Hooply, I think, whatever it is. But just tell give the folks a little snapshot of that evening that was in Washington, DC at a site right across from the Navy yard. And with a couple hundred folks. Well, first of all, just the gratitude for Dr. Mark Patterson in DC for allowing us to do it opened up and brought all of their leadership team into the sanctuary room there, the capital turnaround. And they love you there. When I go out and travel with you sometimes, people just, they treat you like a celebrity, which is crazy. All these young people. And I think they identify with you as someone they trust. Like, this is a guy that I trust. So it was a great audience to speak to. And it was kind of a first time for you to do like, like a comedian puts together a whole basic tell stories all night long that you would do the same and not feel like you had to make three points in a sermon, but just to talk. And I, back to that for a second and that cue card that you made, I remember that you used to, you told me and I knew when you were at Bethany as the college president, you would put some notes on a piece of paper and walk out the door. Just a few lines and those sort of maybe like a post it note message kind of things became a way that you communicated heart and within the context of a few key things you wanted to say. And this is kind of like that. You just took sort of a pattern and a flow and you put them together beautifully in a night. And then we asked Mark if he would host it. And he's articulate and wonderful. And then you just told story for the night. And the response of the room we have photographs of people that were a little older than me. And then young men, young teenage boys, we have pictures of them just intently listening to this evening of story. And the laughter was just on cue. And it just felt like we were sitting in a room, like a living room around a fire. And it just felt right. One of the comments that happened from that evening was from a young staffer at at NCC. She said that I want to love Jesus and know Jesus like that guy knows Jesus. And like you didn't preach a big message. You did it like unfold theology. You just told story and how people related to God. And it was something that drew them in. It was something that wanted them to do more. And I think that's back to our line about power of story. It got into a place in a little less than an hour in a person's heart to create that yearning or touch that yearning in their life. But I think it went splendidly. I mean, the whole environment, I felt like you were comfortable. You're always at ease when you're speaking. But this was fun just to watch you navigate through each of those thoughts. And then leading up to the time where Mark came up and just gave you some words. What did you think about that whole word game in the middle of that first? Well, as it turned out, he gave me words of stories that he knew that I told or whatever. And so he just tossed them out. So it was kind of as you would put it from your musical background, it was riffing. I think it worked. I think the thing that made that work essentially was that we were on the ground floor back in the mid-90s when that congregation was planted. There were 19 of us Ruth and I and another couple were the old people, right? These other people were 20-somethings. So there's that really is family. And so the comfort of going into a space where people have had relationships for almost 30 years now, that really made it work. The way your brain works, if you hear a word or a thought, now having been with you for so many years, I can tell we're going to that story right now. Because I always say your brain is sort of like a jukebox. And if you push in the right combination, it brings up that disc and flies that 45. And when he did that, that's what he's doing. He's just triggering things. And it's just the way your brain works. It's a very, very beautiful thing. It's verbose, but it's beautiful. So for those of you who are younger, a jukebox used to be a thing back in the 50s and 60s in the last century. When you could put a quarter in and a little 45 RPM record would come around, drop down and play Elvis Presley saying, ain't nothing but a hound dog or whatever, whatever song it was, it's coming up. Well, I think that in that book stories, I love to tell volume one has been available on these sites that we talked about, audio, audiobooks.com, audible and all those for the last number of months. But we have another one coming up here in a few weeks. But I'm going to wrap this podcast by saying, man, thanks for being with me. We'll come back to you in the next podcast. And those of you listening, well, all of you who are listening, thanks for being with us. We're grateful and we'll catch you next time.