The Story Teller by Rodney Douglas

this story originally published on October 26th, 2015 on astoria rain (dot) com

pictured above: the author Rodney Douglas

                                                        

                                                          "Eat, drink, work and screw"

Hank Stamper, "Sometimes a Great Notion" by Ken Kesey

        When you speak, and speak well enough for people to want to listen, your words become very weighty to people. If you do not record or video document the interaction, the personal narrative can have long lasting  impact on other people. I do not recall the first time I had the privilege of hearing Ken Kesey narrate from his literary works, but prior to his death in 2001, I listened to him several times in public forums. Ken was an excellent orator because his intention and demeanor was so much a reflection of this place called Oregon: hard work, good living, nature, life and death and trees and mountains, rivers and wild life. The psychology of Oregon is a collage of emotion and environment; an intermingling of the metaphysical with the raw certainty  of death in nature. The only thing more certain than death in nature is the notion of life that comes before and during it.  Kesey understood the nature of Oregon, the solace of solitude, the aching beauty of a forest and tragic power of rivers that can give life and can as quickly engulf and preserve a living life in death. Whether a leaf from the branch of a tree or a rafter from a passing boat, one cannot venture into nature without a deep reverence of its power.

           During my years in college at the University of Oregon, I studied and practiced the lifestyle, world-views and idiosyncrasies of the counter-cultural model of Ken Kesey, The Merry Pranksters and the Grateful Dead.  The limits of my mind were tested and conditioned by experience and experimentation. When I received a loaded full color picture book documenting Kesey's lifestyle called "On The Road", I was relieved and excited because the counter-culture I was drawn to was right there in front of me, bold, proud and determined.

            When Kesey released his novel "Sailor Song", I attended a reading at a lecture hall on the U of O campus. As well as reading from the book, Kesey told several interesting stories. The funniest one was as absurd as it was profound. He spoke of a time when he had been leading a discussion about some of the greatest inventions of the century. Big and notable topics like the pace maker, pasteurization, space travel and the automobile. The conversation propelled along with input and debates about important milestones. From the back of the room, Kesey kept hearing a voice trying to interject a topic: "The Thermos!" Kesey recalled that he passed over the fellow several times. But this guy was persistent. Kesey finally caved. He got the fellow's attention and asked him, "What about the Thermos? How is it such a great invention?" And the fellow responded: "well, you know how when you put hot stuff in and it stays hot? And when you put cold stuff in it stays cold? Well, How does it Know?" The logic was valid and the meaning was profound. Kesey embellished and delivered the story with brilliance. 

            Around this same time period I began working and volunteering once a year at the Oregon Country Fair for a chef who famously catered once upon a time for the Grateful Dead and many other wonderful musicians. For a couple of weeks per summer since then, my life has included this essential event, a blend of work and play and discovery. One of the many benefits of working at this particular Country Fair Booth was several casual encounters with Ken Kesey and his good friend and fellow Prankster Ken Babbs. They would come by to visit and hang out with the Chef. I would be there building benches, setting up our music stage and putting together the Kitchen weeks before the Fair. These encounters were wonderful but mostly as anonymous as the time I stood next to him in the vegetable section of a natural food store in Eugene. I was fully aware of his presence but indifferent to him as a way of being respectful of his privacy. He was a heavy weight of the literary realm yet was not afraid to be in the community choosing his cucumbers. And it is for this reason that I admire Ken Kesey. His cannon is epic. He led a legion of Pranksters and cultivated the next generation of Oregonians through living life, giving literature and teaching exploration of the ordinary through acid tests and exploration.