Log:
I spent my morning hammering out flight details… Which have finally resulted in success! I’m so tickled that I have tickets to visit Pat Adams! I was so excited to go to the farmers market knowing that I had that to look forward to at the end of this internship when it will be hard to tear myself away. In celebration of my productive morning on the phone, I bought a muffin and headed for the dancing area. In the sun all ages danced to a small band of 6 drummers dressed in white. Barefoot and joyful I found myself in the midst of the moment, just where I needed to be. Sigh. Good times.
Today was such an amazing day already I was really excited to get out my sign. A lot of folks in Arcata have signs that say clever things to try and inspire people to share their food or funds, my sign was different. On a brown paper bag I had written “Tell me your story” and was anxious to see what sorts of tales it would yield. Interestingly enough, even though I wasn’t asking for anything a lot of people avoided eye contact, obviously uncomfortable. It was a different perspective, sitting behind a sign, as people really look at you differently. The first responses were awkward avoidance, cracked smiles, or people saying things like “My back hurts”. Not more than a half hour after I’d been sitting there an older gentleman came up to me and asked if I was collecting stories or what. I told him that’s actually exactly what I’m doing.
He sat and told me his life story: in the service he met and fell in love with a German girl. They married, had two beautiful children and it was happily ever after. She and the youngest child were on a trip back to Germany to visit his wife’s family when they died in a crash. After this he was heartbroken but stressed that it was his faith in people that got him through his hard times. He told me “never stop believing in people, never give up hope that the world will be what you need.” He also told me about how he had been heartbroken by his second wife who cheated on him and left him. Through it all, he believes that everyone is good. The second story was from Elie, who told me a number of unbelievable tales. I didn’t buy any of it. I was actually becoming annoyed by his obviously fake stories. Then along came Ben, who was amused by Elie’s stories and he asked for my story… I said I had many, and he requested something recent and funny. I shared the foot massage story and everyone laughed for a good long while. I considered that a fine conclusion to my story requesting for the day. I think people misunderstood my object-to really get stories, not to pick anyone up or collect anything tangible. I also think that asking for someone’s story might be a little intimidating, I mean we’re all in the process of living our stories and it’s hard to really find the moral at some times and tie things up in a neat package. I spent the rest of the day in the woods listening to rain above the redwood canopy while I stayed completely dry.

Questions:
-Stories… what do they mean to you?
-Would you stop and tell a stranger your story?
-How would it feel to hold a sign asking for money?

Perceptions:
I felt like many people are uncomfortable with anyone holding signs.