story – Tenx9 Nashville Storytelling

For June 2016’s theme “Courage,” Tenx9 first-timer Lindsey Krinks tells of courage on the streets, watching her friend Ray fight off death and despair through resilience.

Dry Bones Rattling

Tenx9 (ten by nine) is a Belfast-originated monthly storytelling night where 9 people have up to ten minutes each to tell a real story from their lives. This story was told at Nashville’s Tenx9 on June 27th, 2016.

I shuddered when I pulled out the letter from the Cobb County jail in Georgia. I was restless, up again before the sun, so I went to the drawer where I keep my correspondences. I found one of Ray’s letters and unfolded the soft, lined paper. His handwriting was distressed and the letters scrawled across the page as if they were trying to escape. I remembered the last promise he made to me frantically over the phone before he was locked up again, before he wrote this letter. “They’re not gonna take me alive,” he said. “I’ve gotta get back to Nashville. If they try to take me, it’s over.” But they…

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Never again, Nashville. 24-Never Again

Never again do we want the nerve rattling experiences of Thor’s derriere, shaking hotel rooms, or the fear of being found wearing only a towel—on the wrong part of our anatomy.

Never again will we accept the challenge to reach for a great personal accomplishment that ends in lying, cheating, and deep existential crises.

Never again will we have dessert first with him, or wear hats in church, or her him laugh, or watch him love his grandkids…but we will remember, and smile.

Never again will we lose our minds in the relentless pursuit of the destruction of tiny creatures—no matter how annoying they may be.

Never again will we steal Christmas trees, or wave at police with hacksaws in our hands, or get into car accidents with confused potheads, just for a little sweetness in life.

Never again will we sit together in our community in hell, listening to homilies and guitars with friends and family, or organize protests against the godfather…well, we might do that.

Never again will we listen to stories of pain, addiction, and illness, and choosing homelessness to care for loved ones, from people who used to seem normal, and then take a day of rest from doing what we feel compelled to do.

Never again will we move all our things across the country with stress ulcers, an oblivious father, and a cat who can read our m minds.

Never, never again.

Tag: story

Lindsey Krinks – Courage

Never Again – The Understory