"Welcome Back to the Campfire" featuring a story by Jude Hagene

These episodes of The Campfire Storytelling Podcast feature stories finally brought to the stage. The episode you are about to hear was first recorded via Zoom during an online showcase. However, we can now bring you a live, in-person version, along with tweaks and updates to narratives you may have heard before.

This episode features Jude Hagene, a past student in Campfire’s Advanced Storytelling class.  These students take a six-week class to prepare to tell a story about life and how they live it. 

You can learn more about Jude Hagene on the Campfire website, https://cmpfr.com/events/welcome-back/

This episode was originally performed in April 2022, produced by Jeff Allen, and recorded live at the High Low in St. Louis, Missouri.

Transcript

Steven Harowitz: 0:12

Hello, internet. It's been a little while. I'm Steven Harowitz. And I will be your host for this episode of the campfire storytelling podcast recorded here in St. Louis, Missouri. In this episode, I have something extra special for you because we have stories to share from our return to in person events. Our first event was the Welcome back to the campfire event. And our second was a campfire showcase both events, featured storytellers who told their stories virtually due to COVID. So we invited them back to tell their stories in front of a live audience. Now this episode will highlight one of those storytellers. You can catch all the other storytellers by subscribing to the campfire storytelling podcast, wherever you get your podcasts. Now, let's head to the campfire, to listen to Jude story from our live and in person. Welcome back to the campfire event.

Jude: 1:12

All right, our country. Wow, it seems really divided now, doesn't it? Oh, my. We're so divided politically, religiously, economically. You think that a worldwide pandemic would bring us together? Nooooo. We can't even agree on the small things. You know, like? How do we say that acronym? G I F? Is it GIF? Or is it GIF? I mean, come on, you know, just pizza really have to have pineapple? And I don't know about your household. But mine the age old debate on whether the toilet paper roll goes over or under? Yeah, well, hey, but I got some good news for you. Because after a lot of meticulous research, and a lot of data collection, I have discovered the one thing that everybody in the entire world can agree on. We're all sick of COVID. Mhm Yep Yep Yep Common Common YeahYeah. Well, the bad news is, is that my story has a little bit to do with COVID. So you can go now if you want. But don't leave yet, because it's pretty good. So my story takes place in fall of 2020. And just to help set that time for you, cus' time is so weird now. That was the time before we had vaccines. And after masks were widely available. And it was a time period where lots of people were making some individual choices for themselves. Lots of ordinary activities had become very risky. Some people were letting their hair grow out. Some people were cutting their own hair, some people were putting on a mask and going down to great clips and crossing their fingers. Some people with family get togethers or friends. Some people were staying completely isolated. Others were doing the backyard things where people were six feet apart. And then other people were putting on the mask and they were hugging grandma and crossing their fingers. So you know, people had to make different choices. And one day, I did my own little personal risk assessment for my daily walk. And I figured hmm, I'm gonna be outside. I'm going to be alone. I'm walking to the park, through a residential business type area. And if I see any strangers, I'm just gonna speed on past stranger danger. Not going to have anything to do with strangers. That's for sure. So I decided to leave my mask at home. So I'm out walking, and it's one of these beautiful days. I mean, the sky was this intense blue, and the trees were in all their glory. Oh, and the air was so invigorating. It was so good to be out of the house. I'm sure I had this kind of goofy grin on my face and I even waved at a couple of strangers as I sped on past. And as I was rounding the corner to the bank and to head my head home, I noticed this woman at the ATM. We were waving and for some reason I still do not know why I stopped. I don't know why. Um, at one point, we were talking about the weather about how beautiful it was. And then we started talking about other things. Now, she was still, you know, 10 feet away. So it was safe, it was fairly safe. And uh we started talking about other things. And we, we ended up talking about that Disney movie"Soul". Have you seen it? If you if you haven't, you have to see it, the animation is like, fabulous. Well, it's about this Soul, who does not want to come to earth. I mean, maybe it heard about the pandemic, you know, um, whatever, they kept trying to get the soul to come to earth, and it was not having it. And it's also about this musician, this man, who is very, very, very focused on his future goals, and what he wants to have happen. And he's very afraid that things are not going to go the way he wants. And he's so focused on his future, that he really is missing a lot of the magical moments that come up in his daily life. So we talked about that movie for a while and, and then has women of a certain age do. We started talking, we started asking each other about our children. And I had noticed that this woman had beautiful dark brown skin. And so I proudly proclaimed that I am the mother of two grown ass, biracial men, 30 and 22. And normally, I stopped there. But there was something about the tilt of this woman's head. Maybe she realized that there was a big eight year difference between my boys. And so I continued, and I told her that I lost a baby in between my son's and I didn't even know if my baby was a girl or a boy. But I decided to name my baby Grace. And I always get a little choked up about Grace when I talk about her even after all these years, because, because I like a lot of women who have had a miscarriage carry around some misplaced guilt. Maybe I should, I should have stopped jogging sooner. Maybe I shouldn't have painted that rocking chair. And this woman, this stranger, she noticed my discomfort. And she said to me, she said, maybe Grace is like that Soul in the movie. Maybe she didn't want to come to Earth. Maybe it was her choice. Maybe it wasn't your fault. That gave me so much comfort, comfort that my friends and my doctor and my family had not been able to give me all those years. And so I asked her about her children. And she said that she too was the proud mother of two grown ass black men. But then she said there used to be three. That her youngest was murdered. Oh my God, what do you say? I mean, I, I blathered something, you know, hopefully consolable consoling, hopefully not too ridiculous. But she noticed my discomfort. And she said it's, it's okay. He wasn't meant for this world. Hmm. And then, then he started talking about this world. Oh, my God, and how hard it is, to be mothers. Especially mothers of black boys. And we talked about how often we would be fearful when our our boys would leave the protection of our homes and would go to school or to work or to a protest. And how often we would stand at the window at night, waiting for them to come home and imagining horrific things that could be happening to our babies. I told her I said I gave my boys the talk his best as a white lady again. And then I tried, I tried to offer my sympathy for her, her son, her youngest son, who, who she had lost, and um she said, No, no, it it's okay. He's, he's in a better place. And then she said, she said, Hey, maybe, maybe your Grace is in the place where babies are before they're born. And, and maybe my son is in the place, where people go when they, when they die to young. And maybe, maybe they can talk to each other and, and maybe they can keep each other company. And again, I, I felt this wonderful sense of comfort from this stranger. And then she, she looked at me kind of shyly, and this slow smile spread across her face. And she said, may I have a hug, please? Stranger danger. AHHH I can't hug her, I don't have a mask, she doesn't have a mask, we're in the middle of the pandemic, oh my god, we're gonna die. And then, as quickly as that thought went into my head, thankfully, it went out and, and I realized what the real danger would be, as if it would be dangerous if I became like that man, in the Disney movie, the musician and to be so afraid of the future and what might happen that I would miss the magical moments of my present. And this definitely was a magical moment. So I hugged her, I might have crossed my fingers, but I hugged her for a long time. And as we stepped apart, I noticed her van in the parking lot, and on the bumper was a Trump sticker. And then as I walked away, she said, God bless, Have a blessed day. And I thought, wow, we are really different politically and religiously. And then I went no. No, we just shared our motherhood, our grief, our humanity. We couldn't be more the same. And that was such a comforting thing for my soul. And so I invite you if the next time you're with somebody, you find yourself in the company of someone who you think is wildly different than you are. I encourage you to look, look hard, dig deep. Look for the things, for the ways, in which you're the same. Look for your shared humanity. I guarantee you, it will feed your soul

Steven Harowitz: 13:37

That is a wrap. You can make sure to hear the other episodes from our return to in person events by subscribing to the campfire storytelling podcast, wherever you get your podcasts. And if you liked what you heard, please leave a review. It helps others find our podcast, support our students and to prove to the internet that we are legit, and not a Rando podcast out in the interwebs. We'd love to have you come out for an event or even take a class you can visit campfire dot com. That's cmpfr.com for all the details. Whether you live in St. Louis or nowhere nearby, there are ways to attend our events virtually. You can also find out more about that at campfire.com thats cmp fr.com. As always, a big thank you to the campfire team, our Podcast Producer Jeff Allen, and everyone who attends these live events. Tonight stories were recorded live at the high low one of the wonderful venues that the Kranzberg Arts Foundation runs here in St. Louis, Missouri. Thank you for listening to the campfire storytelling podcast. I've been your host Steven Harowitz. Until next time.