Stages (José)

Last week, the older buds at Best Day had a great idea. After all the times I’d plugged The Moth, a few of them thought that we could do our own story slam at Best Day. We’d pick a topic, put everyone’s names in a bucket, and each older bud would tell a five minute story based on the theme. Older bud Eleanor even volunteered her alarm to keep us from going over the time limit.

On Monday, I went to a Moth story slam with older bud Joyce and her son Hakim. Hakim wasn’t able to stay for the whole show, but he liked what he saw and seemed interested in learning more. Joyce enjoyed everyone’s stories, but she wanted more time to practice and prepare her story before going onstage. I wonder if she’ll go onstage after a Best Day story slam?

And on Tuesday, I bumped into none other than older bud Nouria! I hadn’t heard from her in over a year, because she was in Paris, France with her two twin baby granddaughters. We met by chance at the Wilma Theatre’s “Describe the Night,” and she might be submitting some stories through our web portal pretty soon...

If you or an older bud have a story to share, you can send them through that very same portal right here. If you want to keep Best Day going for another ten years, then like us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. And check out this story by older bud José:

Jose Dominguez

10.17.2019 

Oh No, Why Did You Tell Me?

This last Sunday, I went to the Michener Art Museum at Doylestown. My most important experience there was when John, a very kind artist, invited me to attend a silent view of a painting, so I went and visited some other 10 persons. John was a very good facilitator and introduced us to an expressionist work of art. As you can imagine, he selected one [that] had all colors arranged in a kaleidoscopic mixture of light, form, and movement. He did not tell us what was the idea of the painting and purposely he declared, “You can make your own story of what you are looking at because I’m not going to tell you nothing.”

Well, I liked his statement and faced the enigmaticness that obviously represented the painter’s feelings. So at that moment after some minutes of frustration trying to find structure, form, or meaning, I decided that the only meaning I will put to work was my own point of view. So I engaged myself in a pleasant struggle to fantasize whatever I suppose or feel. I don’t have to say, but it was fun. After some minutes, John was in charge again of the facilitation, a few of us participated, sharing their own ideas but John decided to tell us the painter’s idea and told us: “You know, this is a jazz composition and there are 3 musicians. Can you find them?” And the fun was over, back to reality! Everybody was trying to find human figures in the mess of colors and figures and they were found! He asked for my opinion and I said, “I had so much fun wondering that I didn’t enjoy to know the real meaning of the painting. I would prefer not to know it and continue with my fantasy.”

Thanks for reading, and have a good weekend.

Curated by Caitlin Cieri