Episode Seventy-Two: The Byte - Gerald Hausman

Welcome to episode 72 of Bite-Sized Blessings.

In this episode,

I get to interview Gerald Houseman,

Who is an author and storyteller of both adult and children's books,

More than 70 in fact,

Including The Future is the Beginning,

The Forbidden Ride,

Horses of Myth,

And the book that I discovered this author through,

Stargazer.

I went to my local used bookstore here in Santa Fe,

New Mexico,

And I always go right to the New Mexico section.

I take my time.

I just know there's treasure to be found there.

And this last time,

I found Stargazer,

A book that I hadn't heard of.

It's very interesting.

It's book one of the Stargazer trilogy.

On the back,

Hugo and Nebula award-winning science fiction fantasy author Roger Zelazny says,

Gerald Houseman Stargazer is a very different book,

A paradoxical southwestern fantasy drawing upon local folklore and Indian myth,

A smoothly told tale of no small complexity and more than a little mystery.

But it was the dedication that I found inside that intrigued me and really hooked me.

Bernie and Ann,

As I walked out one snowy winter morning with love,

Jerry.

I thought,

Who is this?

I have to meet this person.

And so with not a little nervousness,

I emailed Jerry Houseman and he responded right away that he'd love to be a guest.

This interview was a little bit like stepping into a fairy tale,

Where you step into a place where you don't know where you're heading,

What direction you're going.

And it started on the day that I was supposed to interview them.

I showed up to the cafe where the interview was to take place and it had a big closed sign on it.

The sign said,

Closed on Monday.

And I thought,

Wait a second,

It's Tuesday.

I think I looked at my calendar and yes,

It was Tuesday.

And I thought,

Already this interview's a little strange.

Both Jerry and his wife,

Lori,

Pulled up soon after and we decided instead we go to their house.

We drove there,

I crossed the threshold and we sat at their kitchen table.

And I think most of you know,

Or at least suspect,

That the kitchen table is the perfect place to share stories of myth,

Magic and miracles.

Now most of you know that I do my interviews over Zoom,

So this was truly a special treat.

Not only did I get to sit at the kitchen table,

Have one of the most interesting and fun conversations I've had in a long time.

Jerry and Lori are people after my own heart.

They're steeped in mysticism and myth,

Fantasy and fable.

But they're also down to earth and grounded.

It was a sheer delight talking with both of them.

Every once in a while,

You'll hear Lori's voice.

And it was really sweet to hear the interplay between these two as they finish each other's sentences and contribute to each other's stories.

And so now,

Without further ado,

Episode 72 of Bite-Sized Blessings.

Not very long ago,

I was struck by lightning.

You were?

Yes.

It happened in Florida.

Lori was a witness to it because she was standing by the front door of our house and I was talking to a guy in a pickup truck and the lightning hit his truck and turned everything all around me and from where you were standing too,

Turned everything pink.

And when it was over,

My neighbor across the street said,

Wow,

He said,

How did you make that pink light?

And I said,

We didn't.

But,

You know,

I went back.

First thing I did was call this doctor friend of mine and I said,

Dr.

Jim,

I said,

I seem to have been hit by lightning.

And he said,

Oh,

Boy.

And I said,

What should I do?

And he said,

Just get ready for a weird night.

The story circles a little bit.

One day I was jogging in our arroyo and a voice came into my head and said,

There's something you need to see.

What you need to do is just reach,

Not with your eyes,

But with one hand,

Reach into this rat hole on the side of the arroyo.

And I thought,

That's risky.

But I did what the voice said and I felt something cool on my palm and I drew it out into the sunlight and it was a black Madonna.

I've had the most mysterious things imaginable happen in my life,

So I didn't really need to do much more than write them or tell them with thanks to the powers.

I ended up putting that in the little church in Chimayo.

Yeah.

I was going to ask,

When you were a kid,

Did you have a sense or did your family kind of impart the idea,

The concept that you come from a family of healers or that you were a healer?

Were you aware of that when you were a kid?

I'm not sure.

I think I was in awe of my mom and dad.

I thought they were very special beings.

My mom especially,

Because she was not only a storyteller,

But she was a storyteller in paint.

And so I had that awe for my mom.

My dad,

Later on,

He was like a dog whisperer before anyone used that expression.

He would invite dogs into the house.

Strange dogs would come scratching on our door and they would want to be let in.

And my dad would let them in and then he would have long conversations with them.

But in a normal voice,

A soft,

Quiet voice,

One dog,

Whose name was Kendricks,

Came back for like five years,

Kept coming back to the house,

Back to the house.

And my father said to me one day,

He said,

Jerry,

You with your paper route,

You get around everywhere.

And I said,

Well,

I get around to a lot of places.

And he said,

Can't you find out who Kendricks' family is?

And I said,

I'll do my best.

And sure enough,

I found the family.

And they said,

Oh,

Well,

When I told the lady about it,

She opened her front door and let me in.

And she said,

You know,

She said,

Kendricks isn't here right now.

He's visiting someone else.

Music When I was 10 or 11,

I saw what looked like a parallelogram in the sky on a camping trip.

And we were at about 5000 some feet.

It was a bunch of kids and a counselor,

A summer camp counselor.

And we woke the counselor up and we said,

There's something funny happening in the sky.

And he said,

What does it look like?

The smart one amongst us said,

It's a parallelogram.

And he said,

I know what that is.

Do you?

And the boy said,

Well,

Yeah,

My father's a mathematician.

Okay,

So what does the parallelogram do?

The boy said,

Well,

If you look at a certain angle,

You see the star that starts it off goes from the left to the right and then down to the left and then to the right again.

And it's exactly like one of my father's drawings.

Music I had not very long ago,

I was struck by lightning.

That were?

Yes.

It happened in Florida.

Laurie was a witness to it because she was standing by the front door of our house.

And I was talking to a guy in a pickup truck,

And the lightning hit his truck and turned everything all around me.

And from where you were standing to turn everything pink.

It was just it was a strange thing.

And when it was over,

My neighbor across the street said,

Wow,

He said,

How did you make that pink light?

And I said,

We didn't.

But,

You know,

I went back.

First thing I did was call this doctor friend of mine.

And I said,

Dr.

Jim,

I said,

I seem to have been hit by lightning.

And he said,

Oh,

Boy.

And I said,

What should I do?

And he said,

Just get ready for a weird night.

Did it hurt?

It did.

There was no real hurt.

Well,

In your back.

Yeah,

I think my back felt really under great pressure.

But the rest of me was normal.

He said,

The doctor advised me,

They'll just go to bed.

He said,

And get back up when you feel you can.

And I said,

Well,

Do you need to see me or should you see me?

And he said,

Let's see how this goes.

Jay DeGroat is the one who said,

When I told him we had an infestation of ants and we couldn't get rid of them,

Jay said,

Have you tried giving them something?

And I said,

Like what?

I said,

Like a medallion or something?

What are you talking about?

And he said,

Show me their nest.

And so I walked outside and I showed him the nest and it was teeming with ants.

And he said,

Okay,

He said,

Don't disturb them.

But he said,

You want to give them something they'll like.

And they'll remember you for it.

And he said,

They'll leave your house because they're in there looking for something they like.

And I said,

Okay.

I said,

What would it be?

And he said,

That's up to you and the ants.

And I said,

Okay.

So the following day I went outside and I had some fresh Jamaican herb.

I brought us a really nice sprig of it and gave it to the ants.

And I gave them a little ceremony with it and left it there.

Came back out around twilight and it was gone.

There was nothing left of it,

Not even a trace.

And one ant popped out of the hole and just looked at me and then went back in.

And I thought,

I thought I heard that ant say thank you.

Thanks,

Boss.

Thanks,

Boss.

Thank you so much for listening to episode 72 of Bite Sized Blessings.

It was sheer joy having this conversation with author and storyteller Gerald Hausman and his lovely wife,

Lori.

For more information about Jerry,

His books,

His works,

To watch some videos of him storytelling,

Go to GeraldHausman.

Com.

You'll find the link under the episode show notes on the Bite Sized Blessings website.

I need to thank the creators of the music used in this episode.

Music L.

Files,

Alexander Daccarrata,

Horst Hoffman,

Frank Schroeder,

Chilled Music and Winnie the Moog.

For complete attribution,

Please see the Bite Sized Blessings website at BiteSizedBlessings.

Com.

On the website,

You'll find links to books,

Music,

Playlists and art that I think will lift and brighten your day.

Thank you for listening.

And here's my one request.

Be like Jerry.

Live in the imaginal world.

Live realizing that myth,

Fantasy,

Folklore and magic are just different names for a different reality.

Live in the magic of that idea every day.

Music