Blackout at Gallaudet University: A Biblical Parallel

In this vlog, Carl Schroeder compares the symbolic SLCC blackout at Gallaudet University with a biblical story.

A Wonderful Story to be Translated into ASL!

An elderly Chinese woman had two large pots, each hung on the ends of a pole, which she carried across her neck. One of the pots had a crack in it while the other pot was perfect and always delivered a full portion of water, at the end of the long walk from the stream to the house, the cracked pot arrived only half full.

 For a full two years this went on daily, with the woman bringing home only one and a half pots of water. Of course, the perfect pot was proud of its accomplishments. But the poor cracked pot was ashamed of its own imperfection, and miserable that it could only do half of what it had been made to do.

After 2 years of what it perceived to be bitter failure, it spoke tothe woman one day by the stream. “I am ashamed of myself, because this
crack in my side causes water to leak out all the way back to your house.” The old woman smiled, “Did you notice that there are flowers on your side of the path, but not on the other pot’s side?” “That’s because I have always known about your flaw, so I planted flower seeds on your side of the path, and every day while we walk back, you water them. For two years I have been able to pick these beautiful flowers to decorate the table. Without you being just the way you are, there would not be this beauty to grace the house.”

Each of us has our own unique flaw. But it’s the cracks and flaws we each have that make our lives together so very interesting and
rewarding. You’ve just got to take each person for what they are and look for the good in them.

So, to all of my crackpot friends, have a great day and remember to smell the flowers on your side of the path!

And send this to any or all of your crackpot friends with in 5 minutes and see what happens! Don’t forget the Crackpot that sent it to you.

ASL Dragon and April Fool’s Day

In this very special vlog, you are invited to translate Gisbatzed.

What Can We Learn from Cincinnatus?

In this vlog, Carl Schroeder discusses Cincinnatus who saved Rome in 460 B.C.

ASL and The Zebra Storyteller

What moral can we the Deaf learn from listening to a story told in another language? A plenty of it! We’ve ran into numerous hearing people who are fluent in ASL. More often than not, eventually, we realized they were like Siamese cats. After reading the story, there are at least five questions for children to talk and think about. Read on.

The Zebra Storyteller

Once upon a time there was a Siamese cat who pretended to be a lion and spoke inappropriate Zebraic.

That language is whinnied by the race of striped horses in Africa.

Here now: An innocent zebra is walking in a jungle and approaching from another direction is the little cat, they meet.

“Hello there!” says the Siamese cat in perfectly pronounced Zebraic. “It certainly is a pleasant day, isn’t it? The sun is shining, the birds are singing; isn’t the world a lovely place to live today?”

The zebra is so astonished at hearing a Siamese cat speaking like a zebra, why–he’s fit to be tied.

So the little cat quickly ties him up, kills him, and drags the better parts of the carcass back to his den.

The cat successfully hunted zebras many months in this manner, dining on filet magnon of zebra every night, and from the better hides he made bow ties and wide belts after the fashion of the decadent princes of the Old Siamese court.

He began boasting to his friends he was a lion, and he gave them as proof the fact that he hunted zebras.

The delicate noses of the zebras told them there was really no lion in the neighborhood. The zebra death caused many to avoid the region. Superstitious, they decided the woods were haunted by the ghost of a lion.

One day the storyteller of the zebras was ambling, and through his mind ran plots for stories to amuse the other zebras, when suddenly his eyes brightened and he said, “That’s it! I’ll tell a story about a Siamese cat who learns to speak our language! What an idea! That’ll make ‘em laugh!”

Just then the Siamese cat appeared before him, and said, “Hello there! Pleasant day today, isn’t it?”

The zebra storyteller wasn’t fit to be tied at hearing a cat speaking his language, because he’d been thinking about that very thing.

He took a good look at the cat, and he didn’t know what, but there was something about hs looks he didn’t like, so he kicked him with a hoof and killed him.

That is the function of a storyteller.

Source: Spencer, W. (1993). The Zebra Storyteller: Collected Stories. Barrytown, NY: Station Hill Press

Questions for children:

1. Why would a Siamese cat tell stories to zebras? What does “fit to be tied” mean?

2. What is “inappropriate” about a cat speaking Zebraic?

3. Why does the cat speak Zebraic prefectly and yet we are told that this is “inappropriate”? And how is it similar to using ASL perfectly yet “inappropriate”?

4. Why does the zebra storyteller kill the cat?

5. What then is the job of a storyteller?

ASL Dragon: Children Are Like Plants

A vlog about Sooket telling children how ASL Dragon compares them with plants.

Pat Graybill and My Luck

Carl Schroeder recalls his luck with Actor Pat Graybill of the National Theatre of the Deaf who was a guest in the Maryland School for the Deaf.

ASL Is On My Back

In this vlog, Carl Schroeder can be understood from the back.

Welcome to ASL Storytelling Theatre

You’re cordially invited to see stories told in exclusive American Sign Language onstage and on vlogs. ASL Storytelling Theatre aims at giving the audience a platform to help them regain their confidence and stimulate their abilities for change…change that starts from within them and not from the exterior.

This theatre is likely a place where the storytelling artist brings the stories to the audience, giving themselves the hands-on experience of the intersection of a rock and a hard place. It’s all about politics and social issues affecting the language and culture of the Deaf.

In short, whenever ASL Storytelling Theatre brings the political and social fabric into the materials onstage or on vlogs, let’s remember: everybody always pays. Art is not cheap!