The Moth - Some Kind of Wonderful: Jessica Ribera and Dean Rudoy

Episode Date: December 31, 2021

This week, two stories about searching and finding. This episode is hosted by Moth Producer Jodi Powell. Hosted by: Jodi Powell Storytellers: Jessica Ribera, Dean Rudoy

Attention Houston! You have listened to our podcast and our radio hour, but did you know the Moth has live storytelling events at Wearhouse Live? The Moth has opened Mike's storytelling competitions called Story Slams that are open to anyone with a five-minute story to share on the night's theme. Upcoming themes include love hurts, stakes, clean, and pride. GoodLamoth.org forward slashon to experience a live show near you. That's theMoth.org-forod-slash-huston. Welcome to The Moth Podcast. I'm Jody Powell, your host for this week. We're all looking for something in the new year. A better job, a way to spend more time with your family, or a place where you can really feel at home. Maybe you don't even know exactly what you're searching for.

You just need to find something new. This week, two stories about people looking for something and what happens when they actually find it. Our first storyteller this week is Jessica Rivera. Jessica told this at a store in Slam in Seattle, where the theme of the night was Mama Rules. Here's Jessica, live at the Moth. Applause

Hi. So I grew up in Texas, which is like a sea of dead brown grass. And so when I moved to the Pacific Northwest to Seattle, it was like a magical wonderland of trees and mountains and water. And whales were like a mythological creature to me when I was a kid. But when I figured out you could actually see them here, I was like, I'm gonna do that, I'm gonna see whales. And I mean the marine mammal, not the country, but I, so I learned everything I could learn

about them and I would make sure I was in the right place at the right time and when the whales got Twitter, I was really paying attention to the Orcan Network and where they were. But I really didn't want to do a whale watching cruise because I wanted to have this magical, amazing, like, oh my gosh, there's whales experience. And it took 18 years. The last spring, I was on a mom's trip with some friends. I have four kids under the age of 10. So mom, a time away is a big thing. And I saw whales with my friends. And then just that part of the story short, we saw a gray whale.

So it's like the size of a school bus. And it was like 30 feet away from us in the water. And it was the exact magical, super spiritual experience I've been wanting. And the problem was that my kids weren't there, because they've been with me through this whole thing, knowing that I love whales, and I came home with this story,

and they were like, oh, that's so great, mom, they were so excited, but they weren't there. And my one son, his name is Ivo, Ivo, he's eight years old. He was particularly happy for me, and particularly devastated, he wasn't there. So we made a plan together that we would rent the same beach house that my friends and I went to and for this year's spring break, we would go. The problem is it was on a private

residential only island with like no stores, no restaurant. And the only way to get there is like by private boat, which we don't have, or a passenger onlyonly ferry that goes once a day, like three days a week. But we did it, we rented it, and preparing for something like that with a family of six was insane. And between all of us here, my husband was like five days out from his vasectomy. So he was sore and I was carrying the bins down from the car to the dock. And you've got to make sure you have everything, because there's literally nothing.

There's not even a paved road. So we had to make sure we had enough bottles of wine for four days with kids with no internet and like all this stuff. So we get to the marina. We're all so excited, especially Ivo. And he, I'm like, Ivo, are you ready? We're going to get on this boat. And he immediately had a panic attack, because Ivo, and he, I'm like, Ivo, are you ready? We're gonna get on this boat.

And he immediately had a panic attack because I think it was so much excitement and so much build up and so much pressure. And he was like tremoring and having tiny troubles the whole thing. So I'm doing breathing exercises with him like, I think you know, he gets, he calmed down on the boat over. And we finally get to the house with all of our stuff,

and we walk out onto the beautiful beach, and my three-year-old fell into a pile of driftwood, and got a bad black eye. And he's like, oh, I'm going home! Like, I'm going home. I was like, oh, shit. Like, I just brought my children to a dangerous place. We can't get off the island until tomorrow. And like, what

if something happens? And what if I've set them all up to have this amazing experience that I can in no way guarantee. And maybe it'll rain the whole time and we'll see nothing. So I was like, well, if there's a whale here, I'ma find it. And so I was like, this is beautiful house, all windows facing the water. And I constantly, if there's any even vague sign, there might be a whale. I was like, let's go check, come on everyone, woo, let's go down to the beach. And after like 24 hours,

that got real discouraging to everyone, including me. And then after the whole next week, woke up fresh the next morning and like, oh, like by afternoon, they were like, can you please let us watch this old Transformers DVD that we found. And I was like, great, I'm gonna go take a bath. So I'm up in the bathroom and I was like,

just about to lower myself down to the water. And I looked up the like high little skinny window and I saw a slow going whale boat like just off the beach. So I jump out and I'm like pulling my clothes on and I'm like go to the beach go to the beach there's whales I promise this time and they're like promise like I'm the mom who cried whales and they're not sure but we go down and so's my view. I'm running out to the beach. Ivo is the one in front, and then my older son is right behind him. And I see my two older sons, and I see the spout.

Like come out right in front of them. And I'm immediately starting to sob. And my partner and my two little children came in behind me me and then we saw There were four whales from my four kids and it was like I just Sobbed and sob and my oldest son's like are you even happy? And my daughter said but she like, hold it in, ladies. And my three-year-olds digging in the dirt while whale heads are coming out of the water, like, I'm not joking.

From me to the back wall, that's how close the whales were. We spent an hour with them, and as they finally like headed out to see, I said to Ivo, it was like, was it worth it? And he said it was so worth it. Because as a mom, like, I can't promise, I can't guarantee they're going to love what I love, I can't make experiences happen, I can just be in the right place at the right time. And his birthday, or rather mother's day falls on his birthday on May 12th. And we decided we'd had no magic and we're going to be watching Cruz.

Thank you. That was Jessica Rivera. Jessica Wright's parents and performs in Seattle. Her memoir, The Almost Dancer, is in bookstores now. She's currently working on her first novel, A Story of Generational Relationships, and the interplay of her wounds and wisdom. To see some photos of Jessica and her family on the lookout for Wales, and to find out more about her writing, head to the moth.org slash extras. Our next storyteller is Dean Rudoi. Dean told this at a store in slum in New York City, where the theme of the night was unexpected.

Here's Dean, live at the mouth. Applause. Let me take you back in time to the year 1984. For those of you who had not yet made your debut, this was a time before the internet, before we could buy anything, anytime, from anywhere. 1984. It was a hot and humid summer day in New York City, and I was looking for a book. and I was looking for a book. But first, back in the early 70s, I had read a novel called A Death in the Family by James A.G.

It had won the Pulitzer Prize and for good reason, a deeply moving story of the impact on a family of the loss of the father. Written from the Young son's point of view, much of it from A.G.'s own experience losing his father. Sometime later, I read a book called Let Us Now Praise Famous Man. A.G.'s tribute to the desperately poor sharecroppers

in the south during the Great Depression, illustrated by haunting photographs by Walker Evans. The most beautiful thing I had ever read before or since. I decided I wanted to read and own everything Aegee had written, and so I began my quest. Now this was a time when there were many small used book shops like this one, all throughout Manhattan. Many of them in the village and on the upper west side, and so whenever I was

in these neighborhoods, I would stop in these shops and go to the beginning of the shelves where the a's are. And eventually I was able to collect everything Ajie had written, novel short stories, poems, film critiques, screenplays, all but one book, a little novel called The Morning Watch, the story of a boy's quest for an epiphany on Easter day. It was all to print for many years and impossible to find. 1984, it was a hot and humid summer day in New York City, the kind of day when boundaries blur and anything can happen. I left my apartment on Charles Street in the village and I headed up north on West Fourth Street and there he was. The man who always stood in front of his apartment building, leaning against the railing, always

wearing a raincoat, no matter what the weather, no matter what the season. So I picked up my pace and passed him, but not before I heard him mutter books, books. And so I stopped and I turned back and I went up to him and I said, do you sell books? And wordlessly, he turned and walked around that railing and down the steps toward a basement apartment. And it amazes me today to think that I followed him. into this dark basement apartment light filtering through dirty windows and there were thousands of books, not arranged horizontally on shelves, but stacks, dozens and dozens of stacks of books all around the room. I've been looking for a book called The Morning Watch by James

A.J., I wonder if you might have ever heard of it. It's been out of print for a long time. Without a word, he walks over to the corner of the room and gets a ladder. And he brings it over to one of the stacks of books and slowly climbs the steps of the ladder and reaches up and plucks the top book off of this stack and hands it down to me. The Morning Watch by James A.G. I was speechless. And then finally, how much? Two bucks.

So I reached into my wall and I pulled out a couple of singles, I handed them up to you. You want a bag? No thanks. And I walked across the room and outside and up those stairs back to the hot, sunlit sidewalk, my book in my hand, and a story to tell. Thank you. That was Dean Ruedoy. Dr. Ruedoy is a clinical psychologist who practices rights and teaches in the New Mexico desert.

Devoted to causes, kids, peace, and social justice, he serves on the board of trustees of Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights. A collection of his stories will be published in the spring of 2022. To see a photo of the Morning Watch, head to our website, themoth.org slash extras. That's all for this episode. Whatever you're looking for, whether it's a book, some whales, or something a little less tangible, we hope you find it.

From all of us here at The Moth, have a story where they start to the new year. Jody Powell has been at The Moth for more than five years. She is a producer, director, and educator who enjoys listening and seeking stories from beyond the main corridors. Originally from Jamaica, she currently lives in Harlem. This episode of the Moth Podcast was produced by Sarah Austin-Geness, Sarah Jane Johnson, Mark Solinger, Julia Purcell, and me, Davie Sumner. The rest of the

Moth's leadership team includes Catherine Burns, Sarah Haberman, Jennifer Hickson, Meg Bulls, Kate Tellers, Jennifer Birmingham, Marina Klucce, Suzanne Rust, Brandon Grant, Inga Gladowski, and Aldi Kaza. All Moth stories are true as remembered by Storytellers. For more about our podcast, information on pitching your own story and everything else, visit our website, themoth.org. The Moth Podcast is presented by PRX, the public radio exchange,

helping make public radio more public at prx.org. Thank you.