Why I am Walking for Story
Why it’s important to me: Derek Larthey
Note: Derek Larthey, a good friend, is our guest contributor today. Derek is an actor, a public school teacher, a writer, and a fearless cancer survivor. Derek is a recipient of a full Story Summit scholarship provided by Titos Handmade Vodka for Rescue Me, Derek’s story about a veteran and his relationship with a dog.
Jeff Arch, the Academy nominated screenwriter of Sleepless in Seattle said this of Derek’s work: “Derek’s story, Rescue Me, is about a returning soldier who brings a dog back from Iraq and how they both find salvation through each other. It’s sincere and touching, and, unfortunately, all too real.”
From the pen of Derek Larthey:
Walking for a cause is common. The concept isn’t new. Right? Yet no walkathon has ever focused on the very thing that brings us all together — Story.
I’ve never heard of an event like this — Walk for Story. Have you? A Walk for Story to benefit storytellers? Now, that is a novel idea. Who doesn’t love a great story? Whether a great adventure or a spiritual journey, stories have made me who I am. Before I learned to walk, I’d already grown a healthy appetite for them.
Who isn’t sick and tired of the same old stories being rehashed again and again. Having so much to choose from and yet nothing seems new?
This Walk for Story is raising funds for emerging women writers so they will be able to attend the Story Summits in 2021. When David first began to propose the idea I instantly knew I had to be involved. He didn’t even finish his own pitch for it and I was ready to go all out for it.
Walking for story is deeply meaningful to me. I am a cancer survivor. There was a time when I once struggled to walk, as do most on my team. I still struggle, though you’d likely never know it. If Walk for Story moves the team and I to undertake a journey on foot, you can rest assured that it’s a cause worthy of your support.
Walk for Story will help gifted writers who might not otherwise, be able to attend Story Summits. The Story Summit is a unique experience and organization with unparalleled access to gifted and acclaimed instructors and mentors, including Tab Murphy, the Academy Award writer of Gorillas in the Mist and Jeff Arch, the writer of the classic rom-com, Sleepless in Seattle.
I attended the very first Story Summit in February. To say that it was life changing might seem a simple and embellished claim. That is, to many but not to those who were there. I don’t think I could have ever imagined or obtained such an opportunity had it not been for the generosity of strangers, the crew at Tito’s Vodka or the mentors from the Summit.
I simply would not have been able to attend otherwise. I learned an incredible amount about screenwriting from my fellow mentees and those who’ve spent their entire careers bringing our most cherished stories and scripts to life on the page and screen. Some of which are the very same stories that have helped my family and me to laugh, to heal and to overcome so much together.
Cancer had bankrupt my finances by the time I applied but simultaneously I was made the richest man alive. Part of that wealth is the friendship of my fellow Summiteers and mentors. They continue to have a profound and welcome impact on my life.
I’m walking to raise money for others to have the same opportunity. I actually fall within a few of the most common causes which people often walk to raise money for. None of it has ever held a candle in comparison to the importance the Walk for Story holds for me. Like me, the team uses our stories to do the majority of the walking for us. They free us, giving us the ability to convey our hard earned wisdom.
We use stories to inspire others to have the same love for life in ways that overcome any obstacle we face.
Humanity has used story to do the very same thing. From humanity’s first breath, stories have been at the very center of our world. They play as natural and vital a role in our lives as the blood coursing through our veins. They have served as our bond. Stories entertain, inform and inspire us from one generation to the next.
Admit it though, when you thought of the first human beings circled about the fire at night; the image you framed likely featured a man doing the telling. The role of men and the importance of fathers should never be
discredited but shouldn’t women hold an equal stake? Men are all too often considered the storyteller, the leader in the family and community without so much as a second thought to women. Yet, it’s been the women who’ve read these stories to us and woven them into our lives.
This year’s mission for Walk for Story is to empower women. To seek out and to lift up their voices in a world that simply doesn’t treat women equally to men. Women have played an important role in my life. Some of the best soldiers and leaders I’ve ever met were women, particularly at West Point.
The lion’s share of the best teachers and doctors I’ve had have also been women. Women have held the first and last line of defense during this pandemic. Their stories and voices are important. Yet very few have
been given the same opportunity as the men in this world to become my favorite authors and filmmakers. Despite this, most of my top five movies, books and songs were made by women.
In my deepest, darkest, hardest hours the power of these stories would do far more than simply provide an escape. They’d sustain me. Not long after I completed chemotherapy platinum toxicity gave rise to peripheral neuropathy. It was in both my feet and legs. It can be a crippling, painful disease. It caught me off guard. Just one month after being told the cancer was gone my toes began to feel tingly and cold.
There wasn’t a single cancer cell in my scans, not even the dead ones and yet my legs began to feel frozen one moment and on fire the next. The cancer never reached them but the poison which cured it had. I started to drag my left foot. Then the right. Soon I was falling down the stairs. It spread from my toes to my thighs. At one point I was at risk of it leading the weakened muscles and erroneous nerve signals to literally break the bones in my feet.
It never would but it did cause significant damage in both feet. My doctors told me they would have to shave off and repoint my heels. Surgically repair tendons in both feet while stretching and re attaching my Achilles bilaterally. If that should fail, my own Achilles would be replaced with those from the feet of a cadaver.
I was looking at two years of rehab and no guarantee of complete recovery. They told me I may never again walk as I had before cancer. The women in my life would comfort, support and guide me through therapy, helping me regain mobility.
Like the cancer before it, story played an integral role in my recovery. Both the ones I consumed and the ones I told myself. Time and again, I’d refer back to all of those heroic tales I’d spent my life learning of, be it in the Bible, literature or pop culture.
There are plenty of brilliant stories out there. Some true to life. If they could write such an ending then certainly I could too. While there’s breath in me, there’s hope in me. Granted, life is more complex and difficult than any movie but it’s important to have the right mind- set. It’s just as critical to choose the right stories to draw examples from. What’s that line? Choose wisely? Stories have played a crucial role in nearly every stage of my life. I’m certain they have for you as well.
I never returned to the orthopedic specialists. The pain is still there. I just deal with it better. They say time heals all wounds. Some might argue against that but it definitely heals the pain, even if it can’t hide the scar. A lot can be said for the value of a good story. Whether it makes you laugh or it makes you cry. It is how we live and tell our stories that can make our wounds as beautiful as they are purposeful, our scars victories.
Stories are more important now than they have ever been. Which is why I am walking to raise scholarship money so that women have the same opportunities to tell their stories. We need your help making sure that happens by enabling the gifted men and women who qualify to attend the Story Summit.
The Story Summit is by the far the best organization nurturing and lifting the voices of future storytellers. Participants leave with friendships and mentors that truly become an addition to their family. The work and notes, the exchange of ideas, reading and proofing each other’s books, novels, plays and scripts continues long after the experience ends on location.
My wife and I were sad to leave the company of the Story summit. The very next day, much to our surprise we received an invite to dinner from a friend we made at the Summit. Her name is Rosa Salazar. She’s a funny, insightful rock star-writer from Mexico. To raise her two sons, Rose wrote an unprecedented 6,000 hours of televised material for Televisa.
As we chatted with each other, Rosa, born without a hip and in a brace for the first five years of her life, recounted how she
struggled to walk down the hall from her room in the dark. What a story! She told my wife and I how the paintings hung on the walls and various sculptures looked so scary. The only light was a distant light switch at the opposite end of the hall, a dark gauntlet.
I asked her if she ever got over that memory. She asked me, what was there to learn other than to persevere? I said there was. While perseverance is indeed important. It wasn’t the answer I was driving at. Life has taught me that we don’t need to search for the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel. We are the light. She is the light. She is the light she was reaching out for in her story. The light was always inside her.
That same spark is in each of us. Hope remains no matter how hard others, life or our very own demons, try to snuff it out. Storytellers bring that light to life! They sure have done that in mine.
Stories have the power to heal and propel us forward. The storyteller you help today may be the one who creates the work which becomes your favorite source of hope and laughter tomorrow.
Please join the effort to raise money for scholarships so these women writers in the future can attend the next Story Summit. You never know when the next Penny Marshall, Harper Lee, Maya Angelou or J.K Rowling could be among them.
If you would like to join me on the Walk for Story on September 27, you can join me here.
If you would like to make a contribution to our team, Pierce the Dark, you can make one here.
If you make a contribution, you will receive an automatic receipt for tax purposes. Every dollar is tax deductible and goes to the Storyteller Foundation to support qualified, emerging women writers.
I hope to see you this Sunday, September 27, 2020!
