Council--

I threw in a different activity at the end of yesterday's class with the women. It was the last class for one-- she'd already done a complete cycle with us. The others started halfway through the cycle and will stay on to read the first books that they missed (Yummy, Ghostopolis, Star Gazing Dog).

They shared out their final projects first. Several had done self portraits with self-affirming words or statements worked in. Kaylice-- the one graduating-- had finished work on a detailed piece on which she'd spent a lot of time-- a mermaid with a perfect, beautiful body but a fearsome, grotesque face with long, dagger-like teeth.

Additionally, she'd completed a 6-panel, illustrated story. The illustrations showed an older woman shopping at the store and grumbling about the weather. Fearful about making the walk to her car, she went ahead anyway and sure enough, fell down and couldn't get up. She started hollering for help. A small boy came over; his face peered down from above:

"Are you making snow angels?" he asked.

She misunderstood him, thinking he was offering to help: "Yes! Yes! Help me!"

"Ok!" he smiled, then got down and made a snow angel next to her.

She looked over in disbelief, then realized the ridiculousness of her situation... The last panel is simply laughter-- both of theirs.

*****

So after the other women shared out, we spent a half hour discussing the last third of "Maus" (the Pulitzer Prize winner about one man's survival of the holocaust, in graphic novel format). Not an easy read-- our densest and perhaps most intense read.

We had twenty minutes left so I proposed a Council session. This is not something we'd done before. Council is a practice I learned at my last job-- along the lines of what is taught and practiced by the Ojai Foundation (http://www.ojaifoundation.org).

In its essence, it's the practice of sitting together and sharing personal stories of experiences related based on different prompts. Because it is a practice of oral storytelling, it seemed like something relevant and potentially helpful to introduce to this class, a class which is in design focused on telling stories with both words and illustrations.

The rules for participation are simple:
*speak from the heart
*listen from the heart
*be spontaneous
*keep it lean

(What comes up for people can be deeply personal. Confidentiality is a rule as well; all names in this blog have been changed anyway. )

I gave the prompt "Tell a story about something you've survived." (A pretty loaded prompt, given the setting and circumstances, but this is exactly what we'd been exploring in Maus.)

One woman shared a rafting story when, as a child, she was flipped out of her boat but caught by the pant leg by her mother. The current pulled her head and shoulders under the boat; her mom in fear of losing her wouldn't let go. A scene ensued in which the girl's head stayed under water and the guide was screaming at the mother to let go, but she couldn't, or didn't, until finally he jumped to her side and pried her fingers from the girl's pant leg. The girl disappeared under the boat then popped up-- safe and still alive-- on the other side, where the guide-- having jumped back-- grabbed her. (Decent river guide, huh. And I couldn't help but point out that such a story could make a perfect mini-story for a 6-panel final project...)

The other women shared stories of drugs, addiction, being stranded south of the border, diabetic comas, witnessing death, rolling cars, walking away unscathed, recovery...

The themes of survival and redemption... Women well aware that they've behaved in careless, dangerous ways, still working through the pain of what's happened, thoughtful about what's happened and what's different for them now, or what needs to be different...

Jail-- punishment? a time-out? forced sobriety? a chance to slow down and think? the possibility of turning the corner? a chance to tell stories and move forward?