It is wonderful to be able to feature another great travel story entry from Nancy McBride. You may remember that Nancy came second overall in last year's competition with FAIRIES-Do they exist? If you haven't read it yet then you can catch up with her story here, before reading Nancy's new entry AIN'T LION.
NANCY MCBRIDE’S HAPPENING BIO, SPRING 2017
Perception. Perspective. Twists. Humor. These, to me, are essences to storytelling. As Tim O’Brien revealed to me in The Things They Carried, stories are not what happened, they are what happened to you!
Things happen to me. Examples? A man fell from the ceiling onto my head in a restaurant. A kangaroo in a pink shirt bounced across the road in front of me in the outback of Australia. I scored a bull’s eye rifle-shooting in The Urals. I was struck by lightning. The Queen Mum was tattooed on my bum. I learned how to “be seen”, was “pregnant” with pop-corn, and put a sign on my car, “MASSACHUSETTS OR BUST”. Those sub-titles are just scraping the surface of the kind of ordinary-for-me experiences I inhabit. Doors suddenly open and I trip into the next dimension, illustrating to me that there are obviously an infinite number of dimensions. They don’t scare me. I’ve had a near death experience. I’m a walking happening. Perception. Perspective.
Being present to interpret my life and to allow it to “happen” is my shtick. I’ve travelled. I’ve fallen. I’m a disaster. I’m a survivor. I’ve ruminated. I’ve worked. I’ve loved. I’ve raised kids. I blurt art. Life’s a story happening.
Perception. Perspective. Twists. Humor. These, to me, are essences to storytelling. As Tim O’Brien revealed to me in The Things They Carried, stories are not what happened, they are what happened to you!
Things happen to me. Examples? A man fell from the ceiling onto my head in a restaurant. A kangaroo in a pink shirt bounced across the road in front of me in the outback of Australia. I scored a bull’s eye rifle-shooting in The Urals. I was struck by lightning. The Queen Mum was tattooed on my bum. I learned how to “be seen”, was “pregnant” with pop-corn, and put a sign on my car, “MASSACHUSETTS OR BUST”. Those sub-titles are just scraping the surface of the kind of ordinary-for-me experiences I inhabit. Doors suddenly open and I trip into the next dimension, illustrating to me that there are obviously an infinite number of dimensions. They don’t scare me. I’ve had a near death experience. I’m a walking happening. Perception. Perspective.
Being present to interpret my life and to allow it to “happen” is my shtick. I’ve travelled. I’ve fallen. I’m a disaster. I’m a survivor. I’ve ruminated. I’ve worked. I’ve loved. I’ve raised kids. I blurt art. Life’s a story happening.
