Austin proves to be full of fun people

Published 12:00 am Wednesday, April 25, 2001

I learned something great about Austin on Saturday night – it is a fun town.

Wednesday, April 25, 2001

I learned something great about Austin on Saturday night – it is a fun town.

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The realization came in the midst of me singing and making funny motions with my hands.

I was at Douglas Wood’s appearance at the Ruby Rupner Auditorium out at the J.C. Hormel Nature Center on Saturday. When I sat down, I was first surprised and then extremely pleased as the room filled and new chairs had to be placed in the corners of the room.

Then I looked around and saw the variety of people there. Actually, there seemed to be two extremes: children with young parents and seniors. The demographic makeup of the audience made me wonder why more people my age weren’t there.

When Doug Wood began to tell the story of the Windigo, the audience listened and laughed and hung on his every word. He’s a great storyteller and I believe we need more storytellers in our world.

The children laughed, the adults laughed, I laughed (in other words, I don’t consider myself a child or an adult). And then our ages merged and mingled, and at one point it became difficult to distinguish who was what age. The particular moment this happened was the first time Wood asked us to sing a chorus with him.

We were all tentative and then we started to get into it.

"We’re sittin’ on a little green speck, on a little blue ball, in a big black sky, all alone." We did the hand gestures to go along with the song and we sang more assuredly with each chorus.

Soon we were old hands at it and as we sang each chorus, he asked us to sing with gusto. We rocked that place!

I suddenly felt such community among the people present. We were all making fools of ourselves and we were enjoying it. We were letting go and playing, egoless. I had fun with a group of people I didn’t know and I felt comfortable.

Rarely can we find people we can have fun with without feeling self-conscious. It was only when we were all extending ourselves in singing the songs that we could all laugh and not feel stupid doing so. Though I was a bit upset more people were not there and a better cross-section of Austin was not present, I was happy with who had been there. Those of us who shared a time of storytelling, fun, laughter and thought were better for it.

Each person told their own story in the way they were willing to be a child for a couple of hours. We were back in kindergarten, before bills, jobs and responsibilities weighed down our souls. Perhaps that is why more people my age were not there – they also are weighed down. Take time to lift the weight, people. It helps.

We listened and went home with stories and songs about turtles and the earth echoing through our souls.

I have one request: Let’s do that more often, Austin.

Kevira Mertha’s column appears Wednesdays. Call her at 434-2233 or e-mail her at newsroom@austindailyherald.com.