My morning began today with a call from Sunny Dooley, one of the most influential people to enter my life in 2017. Sunny is a storyteller, in that it’s literally what she does. It’s her calling, her livelihood, and what she does best. Whenever we talk, narrative spills from her tongue – whether it be a creation story that has been passed down for generations, or a grand account of a sandwich she ate last week, when Sunny speaks, you can’t not listen.
Sunny is a refreshing reminder that storytelling is a real thing, and storytellers are real people. In this day and age, I’ve heard so many institutions and companies call themselves storytellers, but how many of them actually have stories to tell? Where are the characters and plots, the meanings and morals? Or is the word story the latest to be hijacked as a more colorful way to name advertising schemes? I too have been guilty of describing the need for stories without actually telling them, and my friendship with Sunny reminds me of this often.
I told her about how I recently met the filmmaker Angelo Baca, who has been telling his own stories to defend his home at Bears Ears. Sunny responded with the ultimate “did you know,” describing how the mountains in Utah are actually the ears of a larger bear that lies throughout Navajo Nation, including its spine which runs along Mt. Taylor which I visited with Lovely and the Bombshelltoe crew last fall. She spoke about the lava beds that are also part of the bear, and how this blood is what connects the land to other sacred spaces like the Mauna Kea volcano that is going through its own protection campaign in HawaiÊ»i.
I’m reminded of what I was reflecting on yesterday, about how far the Word has brought me in life, and the fact that the truths we speak are sacred. It’s Monday, so I’m bout to dive into a sea of emails and memos, trying to keep perspective of the stories that truly matter.