Riding the Tiger

As a teacher of storytelling, I know that there are a lot of people who are interested, but not really invested, in the study of the art that I love so much. When I discover the passion for storytelling inside a student that matches my own, I find that experience exhilarating and thrilling. My students have described the experience as akin to going over a waterfall or turning on a water fountain.

I like to call this discovery riding the tiger. Sometimes in the jungle of life, we feel lost and closed in by all the daily activities of life. We are lost in a sea of sound and shadow. We know that, somewhere in the underbrush, there are tigers ready to pounce on us and eat us. We are grasping for something to support us, to shelter us.  Suddenly, without any warning, our hand grasps hold of the tiger’s tail.

Now we must leave the world of the real for the moment. If this happened to you in real life, the tiger would yank its tail out of your grasp and run far away (if you were so lucky). But in our fairy tale, what happens is different. You see, the tiger runs and you are pulled along by the tail of the tiger. You find yourself running with the tiger. Suddenly the world is no longer dark, small, and noisy. Now the world is filled with color and excitement. You are running with the baddest of the bad.

Now you are faced with a choice. You can let go of the tiger’s tail and return to the world of shadows or you can begin to pull yourself along the tiger’s tail and onto the tiger’s back. Maybe you will be able to direct where the tiger goes; maybe you will be able to have the tiger carry you to the most magical, the most amazing places in this jungle of life. Or maybe the tiger will stop and eat you.

What the right teacher can do for you. The teacher can turn on that electric lightning that is your unique gift of story to the world. The teacher can turn that switch that makes you tell stories so that the colors of the world change forever. But it has to be the right teacher and you have to be willing to hold on with both hands for the ride of your life.