The Thousand Mile Walk, and Other Adventures with My Friends
Location
Feather River Inn
Start Date
4-5-2001 7:30 AM
End Date
6-5-2001 12:30 PM
Description
Living history interpreter Dick Shore specializes in the life of the wilderness mystic and foundational conservationist John Muir. In this video , Shore talks about environmental education in the storytelling tradition -- as Muir reflects on his 1000-mile walk from Louisville to the Gulf of Mexico.
You may know John Muir as John O' The Mountains, writer, glacial geologist, naturalist, father of Yosemite, founder of the Sierra Club; mechanical inventor; world class ambler; architect of the National Park Service and raconteur extraordinaire.
Above all these things John Muir remains the archetypal consummate great and gentle soul whose legacy endures as a reminder to us to live in harmony with nature.
Now, imagine John alive today... Dick Shore is his alter ego. Through story and song you can experience the fascinating details of Muir's life, from a Scottish boyhood to the 1,000 mile walk and beyond.
Theme and Premise: The theme of the presentation is the kinship Muir sensed with these he called his friends. The premise is that Muir is alive and well, and comes to chat. Thus I propose to create in the audience member's imagination a living Muir. He will then tell his story. I propose to use my skills as story-teller, actor, naturalist, and first-person living history interpreter, to provide this rather broad yet intimate view of John Muir and friends.
Content: John's story will begin with how he managed to survive growing up, and the trek across the Great Southern Wilderness. He will share a few episodes from his adult life based in California. He will look at his relationship with friends, a selection of wild creatures and a few people. He will look at our sense of kinship with these his friends. He will bring to this conversation with us his historical perspective, not frozen at a single moment in time, but moving with us in our own context. He will share his recollections and interpretation of his experience, from his point of view, and may be able to relate it to our experiences now.
Sources: I will base this presentation largely on published works of Muir, with a smaller reliance on material in his unpublished (except in microfilm) journals and letters. Finally, I will draw on my own experience, insight, and imagination.
Style.: This presentation is not a scholarly analysis of some one else. It is rather, an intimate glimpse, a story teller, being as faithful as possible to the source, and letting the source speak for himself. It is my attempt to bring, in your imagination, John, telling his own story as he recalls it now, sharing it with a group that has come to hear him speak, as happened so many times during his adult life.
The Thousand Mile Walk, and Other Adventures with My Friends
Feather River Inn
Living history interpreter Dick Shore specializes in the life of the wilderness mystic and foundational conservationist John Muir. In this video , Shore talks about environmental education in the storytelling tradition -- as Muir reflects on his 1000-mile walk from Louisville to the Gulf of Mexico.
You may know John Muir as John O' The Mountains, writer, glacial geologist, naturalist, father of Yosemite, founder of the Sierra Club; mechanical inventor; world class ambler; architect of the National Park Service and raconteur extraordinaire.
Above all these things John Muir remains the archetypal consummate great and gentle soul whose legacy endures as a reminder to us to live in harmony with nature.
Now, imagine John alive today... Dick Shore is his alter ego. Through story and song you can experience the fascinating details of Muir's life, from a Scottish boyhood to the 1,000 mile walk and beyond.
Theme and Premise: The theme of the presentation is the kinship Muir sensed with these he called his friends. The premise is that Muir is alive and well, and comes to chat. Thus I propose to create in the audience member's imagination a living Muir. He will then tell his story. I propose to use my skills as story-teller, actor, naturalist, and first-person living history interpreter, to provide this rather broad yet intimate view of John Muir and friends.
Content: John's story will begin with how he managed to survive growing up, and the trek across the Great Southern Wilderness. He will share a few episodes from his adult life based in California. He will look at his relationship with friends, a selection of wild creatures and a few people. He will look at our sense of kinship with these his friends. He will bring to this conversation with us his historical perspective, not frozen at a single moment in time, but moving with us in our own context. He will share his recollections and interpretation of his experience, from his point of view, and may be able to relate it to our experiences now.
Sources: I will base this presentation largely on published works of Muir, with a smaller reliance on material in his unpublished (except in microfilm) journals and letters. Finally, I will draw on my own experience, insight, and imagination.
Style.: This presentation is not a scholarly analysis of some one else. It is rather, an intimate glimpse, a story teller, being as faithful as possible to the source, and letting the source speak for himself. It is my attempt to bring, in your imagination, John, telling his own story as he recalls it now, sharing it with a group that has come to hear him speak, as happened so many times during his adult life.
Comments
Dr. Shore brings both personal and professional expertise to this work. Born in the shadow of John Muir's own beloved Sierra Nevada, as a boy Dr. Shore hiked and camped in Yosemite and valleys throughout the west coast. Since then he has camped in over half the remaining states.
His formal education includes a Ph.D in Zoology (Duke 1963) and MBA (Toledo 1974), course work in both ecology and economic. His MBA is in Operations Analysis. He is a Certified Quality Engineer, and in his parallel career capacity has served in both industrial and government organizations.
Dr. Shore's life-long passion for the theatre has enhanced this John Muir presentation which he has given all over the United States enthralling over 31,000 people since 1987.
His clients include Elder Hostel, universities and colleges, the U.S. Army, state chapters of the Sierra Club, the Audubon Society, Nature Conservancy, as well as various civic and religious groups. He has been featured on both TV and radio talk shows and in 1995 graced the cover of "Legacy" magazine.
This performance is suitable for a myriad of audiences and ages from 10 to 100.