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  1. Establishing Shot Video Series, Episode 3: Jim Pfitzer Wednesday, October 28, 2009

    Michael Kendall is an Editorial Fellow. He recently sat down with Jim Pfitzer, ArtsMove artist and professional storyteller. The video below was produced by Megan Hollenbeck, a local videographer.

    “I lived here twenty years ago, and it was not a place I wanted to be. I couldn’t imagine ever coming back…we were a dirty city.” These words are from Jim Pfitzer, ArtsMove artist and local storyteller.

    In 1987 Jim left Chattanooga in a Volkswagen Bus (ironically), and headed for sunny California. He spent roughly twenty years living out of this bus, working as a rafting guide in Yellowstone, at a hostel in the Redwood Forest in CA, and at a nature center in Chicago, Illinois.

    Twenty years after he left, he decided to come back. Chattanooga had become, in his absence, a budding community of growth and development, and it was this and his desire for a slower-paced lifestyle that brought him back to his roots.

    Jim wasn’t raised on storytelling. The only time he remembers being told a story was at a church summer camp, and it was then that his interest was piqued, and the rest of his life has been spent uncovering and developing this ability.

    The inspiration behind Jim’s stories derives from his passion for the outdoors. Birds of prey, black bear encounters, and memories of giant magnolia trees all are topics of stories Jim tells, and he has found that these interests coupled with the passion that has interwoven itself into his existence have all been integral to his ability to create a story that captures the interest of his listeners.

    Original stories are not the only type that Jim purveys, however. Here is an example of Jim’s personal variation on a couple of ancient Zen Koans that he has mashed together (via his blog). Nothing captures the essence of this Tennessean treasure like his own words:

    There was once a young monk who ran across his master on a meditative walk. As he approached trying to be respectful and quiet, he saw the master spit on a statue of the Buddha. Seeing the student’s alarm, the master turned to him and said, “It is only a statue,” and walked on.

    A week later, they met again on the same trail. This time, the master was bowing down in front of the same statue. Upon standing, he saw the monk’s confused look, and said, “Some see a statue, others see the Buddha.” The monk walked on.

    A week later, the monk discovered his master early in the morning along the trail huddled by a fire like a traveler. As he approached, the master reached behind him, picked up a small wooden statue of the Buddha in one hand, took a hatchet in the other hand, split the statue in two and placed the pieces on the fire. Once again, seeing the monk’s distress, the master spoke. “Look at the ground and tell me what you see.” When the monk responded that he saw pebbles and dirt, the master directed him to look closer. The monk bent over to get a better look. Each time the monk described what he saw, he was instructed to “looker closer still” until finally he was on his knees with his nose in the dirt. “From here, I can see nothing,” he said.

    The master walked behind the monk, laughed, kicked him in the ass, and walked on.

    The young monk got up, brushed off the dirt and sat down by the fire. Eventually, he too found himself laughing.

    You can listen to Jim’s stories live! He has appeared at a myriad of locations in Chattanooga including the Children’s Discovery Museum, Rock City, and private events all over the city. You can follow Jim on twitter: @jimpfitzer, and to find out more about Jim’s activities visit his website, http://www.jimpfitzer.com.

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