Stories from Everyday

 

Jimmie Kanaya epitomizes the phrase “selfless service.” While his parents were locked away in a Japanese internment camp, Jimmie served his country as a medic in Europe, eventually being captured by the Nazis. After months of captivity in harsh conditions, Jimmie was liberated. After a time, he found himself serving in occupied Japan before going to Korea. Despite these difficult experiences, Jimmie made the Army a career, serving over 30 years and retiring as a Colonel. To me, Colonel (ret) Kanaya is a hero.

He and his wife invited me over to their house for a conversation earlier this year. After a warm greeting, Jimmie invited me into his office where awards, decorations, and memorabilia hang on the wall, testaments to a lifetime of service. We spent quite a bit of time talking about his experiences with his mementos as a guide. He showed me how to work his German mess kit, the very one he carried every day as a prisoner of war. “If you didn’t have one, you couldn’t eat,” he told me in a matter of fact tone. Although incredibly proud of his service, Jimmie is very humble. He always gives credit for his success to those around him. I realized very quickly how much Jimmie loves the military and how proud he is to have been a part of its history.

Jimmie served in the 442nd Infantry Regiment, a unit comprised of mostly Japanese American service members. Their story is amazing. Frequently ordered to undertake very dangerous missions, the 442nd was the most decorated unit for its size and length of service in the United States Army. They received numerous citations. Twenty-one members were awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. Many members enlisted from inside internment camps, choosing to serve the country that had locked them up. I’ve been fortunate enough to meet a few surviving members of the 442nd or their families during my time in the Pacific Northwest and feel humbled every time.

For our conversation, we sat at Jimmie’s kitchen table, leaning over in front of our microphones. The first part of our conversation spanned the better part of an hour. We covered numerous topics, including Jimmie’s service in France, his capture, Korea, and a trip to visit his parents in a camp while he was serving. Eventually, Lynn sat down with us and we talked for a while longer.

I consider myself incredibly lucky to have met Jimmie and Lynn. I’ll be forever grateful for the experience.

Kathleen is one of my favorite people. I see her every week at our local flea market where Kathleen has a beautifully curated booth. I don’t remember how we first met – perhaps it was when my wife bought an elegant dress from her for Halloween. In any case, I’ve visited the flea market on numerous occasions just to visit her.

I was pleased when she jumped at the chance to be on the podcast. When I asked her what she wanted to talk about, she was eager to mention a group she volunteers with called Elder Wisdom Circle, a wonderful resource for individuals seeking advice on almost any issue. We also agreed that it would be fun to talk about her psychic abilities and how she first discovered that she had this gift. At one point, she jokingly mentioned that if I wanted some really interesting stories, I should ask her about online dating! When we finished with these topics, Kathleen volunteered one last story from her childhood that I found very moving.

I admire Kathleen for many reasons but most of all because she’s made a choice to use her gifts, knowledge, and talents to help those around her. Whether it’s giving advice to those in need or using her psychic gifts for good, she wants to make a difference in the world and I really admire that. I want to close with an excerpt from a letter Kathleen wrote to someone on Elder Wisdom Circle that she was kind enough to share with me following our interview.

“I live my life fully each day because I know that anyone I touch, each encouraging word I give, every heart I help, is changed by my life. Knowing that gives me the energy, the spirit, the love to continue to move forward until it is my time.”

 

Amen.

It is easy to remember that our experiences and stories affect people that we interact with every day. It’s harder to grasp how experiences ripple through generations and affect those who will come after us. That’s an idea we explore this episode with Judy Cook.

Judy’s mother left her an incredible gift – eight notebooks filled with stories from her life. These were not journals written day-to-day over a lifetime but reflections written by an eighty-year-old woman looking backward to find the moments that meant something, that stood out, that always stayed with her, and that likely helped to define who she was. Judy’s mother was an incredible person with the soul of an artist. Her stories manage to capture the emotion and perspective of the moment with the wisdom she had at the time of writing. Each one is fascinating. In this episode, we talk mostly about her childhood and adolescence which were both impacted by the Great Depression.

Judy, like her mom, is an artist. I met her at an artist’s coop after she unveiled a textile piece inspired by one of her mother’s stories. As she read her mother’s words out loud, I was moved by the beauty of the story, the piece, and of the connection Judy had with her mother’s childhood. I am incredibly grateful to Judy for sharing her time and family history with me. I’ll never forget the image of her mother swimming on her back with pancake mix, of Haggador, or the doomsday prophesy that, luckily, didn’t come true.

If you are interested in seeing more of Judy’s art (and you should), you can find her homepage here.

I believe that stories create empathy. I believe that learning about others’ experiences makes us better able to understand their lives. When we go to other places either by listening to a story, reading a book, or watching a documentary, we strengthen our connections with other people and places. But what if we could, through virtual reality, literally (or virtually) put ourselves in someone else’s shoes? Is virtual reality the next evolution in storytelling? What are the impacts of removing the perspective of a storyteller from the experience?

Zac Murphy has made it his life’s work to explore the power of film and virtual reality to create positive changes in the world. He inspires me. Rather than accept the way things are, Zac is constantly looking for ways to use his talents for good. From saving elephants from landmines to preventing cardiac arrest deaths, he is constantly trying to make a difference. His passion and creativity come across in our conversation.

In this episode, we’re going to talk about some of Zac’s projects and about how he discovered his career. We’ll also talk about his transition from a commercial filmmaker to documentary filmmaker and VR enthusiast. It involves a terrifying experience in a National Park.

I hope you enjoy the episode. Personally, Zac’s stories serve as an inspiration to use whatever gifts I have to make a difference and to never settle for the way things are.

Sometimes, the most difficult part of the war is coming home.

In this episode, I finish my conversation with Mike, a Vietnam veteran. We’re going to start by hearing some more about Mike’s deployment to include his memories of serving as an observer on a Cessna, often referred to as a Bird Dog. Afterwards, Mike recalls how difficult it was returning home and reintegrating into American society.

Mike gives us a window into what was a difficult time for service members. Returning to America after tough deployments, many veterans encountered cool receptions and were asked to deal with their experiences in private. With the support our military receives today, it’s sometimes hard to grasp just how hostile some people were to those who served in Vietnam. Hearing Mike’s story reminded me how much has changed. It also made me wonder how many Veterans have yet to share their stories.

I met Mike at Best Buy. I was shopping for light bulbs. I’m not sure what Mike was shopping for. We struck up a conversation and, before long, we were talking about his service in Vietnam. The more we talked, the more I realized that I wanted to meet with Mike again. I wanted to learn more about his life, his service, and his experiences after the war.

A few weeks later, I found myself in Mike’s house. He was gracious enough to invite me over for coffee and stories. First, I have to mention his book collection. Mike has a wonderful library spanning an entire wall of his house. We both love to read and geeked out for a while before sitting down in his living room to talk more about Mike’s life and experiences overseas.

Mike is a natural storyteller and has a wonderful sense of humor as evidenced by his laugh which peppers the episode. Rather than use my microphone table stands, we held them in our hands and lounged in plush chairs. It made things more comfortable. The sound of our hands on the microphones occasionally creeps into the recording, but to me, that enriches the story. You can hear the fidgeting of his hands, when he leans into the microphone, and when he pulls it away. You can also hear the sounds of his house in the background (please forgive the chiming of the clock). His story has three parts – his journey to Vietnam, his experiences in the war, and his life after the war. Throughout the two hours that we talked, we touched on many topics, from his time at Jungle Warfare School, to throwing grenades in Mason jars from a

His story has three parts – his journey to Vietnam, his experiences in the war, and his life after the war. Throughout the two hours that we talked, we touched on many topics, from his time at Jungle Warfare School, to throwing grenades in Mason jars from a plane.

His story has three parts – his journey to Vietnam, his experiences in the war, and his life after the war. Throughout the two hours that we talked, we touched on many topics, from his time at Jungle Warfare School, to throwing grenades in Mason jars from a plane, to brushes with death. It was an incredible conversation and I can’t emphasize enough how honored I was that Mike chose to share these things with me.

Rather than cut the conversation down, I split it into two episodes. Listening to the whole story is powerful. You have to make it to the end! Mike compares his experience to after the war to experiences of veterans today. It’s a wonderful message and one that resonates.

Mike uses some military jargon in the first ten minutes and I wanted to provide a brief explanation here so that the story is easier to follow:

MOS – Military Occupational Specialty. It’s another term for a soldier’s job.

DI – Drill Instructor

E2, E3, E4, etc. – These are military ranks. The “E” stands for enlisted and the number is the rank. The higher the number, the higher the rank.

OCS – Officer Candidate School. This is where enlisted soldiers go to become officers.

Tac Officer – The officers in charge at OCS.

RA unassigned – A term meaning that you don’t have a preference as to what job you are assigned after basic training.

Darby’s Rangers – An elite unit during World War II.

Discovering a Storyteller

I sat at a table in the back of a crowded bar, watching a woman tell a story from her past. Following her every word, I marveled at her pacing and tone of voice as she told the crowd about a story from her adolescence when she sought employment from a talent agency. I won’t give too many details here. It’s her story and reading it here won’t do it justice. It suffices to say that she was very talented and I’ll never forget her tale. Even thinking about it while writing makes me smile.

Days earlier, I posted a comment on Reddit asking for some advice regarding my podcast. It was still a pipedream and I wanted to learn more about storytelling and to meet potential guests before moving forward. Someone immediately suggested that I check out StoryOly, a monthly event in downtown Olympia. That is where I found myself days later. One of the event’s organizers is Elizabeth Lord, the individual who enthralled me with the story about her employment. I later learned that Elizabeth is a professional storyteller who has made a career of sharing her stories and encouraging others to do the same. I knew that if I was going to start this podcast, she needed to be a guest, preferably the first.

Storite from Everyday – Episode 1!

After a brief email exchange where I explained my project, Elizabeth said that she was totally on board and agreed to sit down for a recording. It is the perfect first episode. Elizabeth embraces the idea that everyone has interesting stories to tell and explores that idea in this episode. We also talk about the power of stories and how they can leave a lasting impression on both the listener and the storyteller alike. To borrow an excerpt from her website, “If you think about it, storytelling and the love of narrative, the love of basic stories: beginning, middle/conflict, end/resolution is inherent in our culture here in the United States and elsewhere in the world. We all love a good story. “

Luckily for us, she shared a few of her own stories for the podcast.

If you enjoy the episode and want to find out more about Elizabeth and her projects, you can check out her webpage at www.professionaltalker.com. You can also listen to recordings of the Olympia Story Slam events on the Story Oly podcast.