Performance Notes:
For this post, the commentary is included in the video following the performance of Ecclesiastes 2:12–26. You can jump directly to the commentary at the 04:00 mark.
I learned this section of Ecclesiastes in order to tell it as part of the “Epic Telling” at the 2022 Festival Gathering of the Network of Biblical Storytellers, International. The Festival Gathering is a multi-day conference that gathers folks who are interested in learning biblical stories by heart and telling them to others. Along with workshop sessions and keynote presentations, the Festival Gathering always includes an “Epic Telling” at which a whole book of the Bible is told from memory in one sitting by a group of people. Each person learns a section of the book (around 5–10 verses), and then we tell it in order, one after another, until we’ve heard the whole book. Every year, the Epic Telling is a beautiful expression of the whole community, in all its variety, giving and receiving God’s Word.
Well done, Cliff! And genius use of the hand gesture of trying to grasp (what I imagined was sand) and seeing it slip through your fingers to illustrate futility!
I was in your workshop a few weeks ago at the Biblical Storytelling festival and it was the most helpful class I attended that week- thank you again and congratulations on graduating as a Certified Biblical Storyteller!