Rebecca Brown's Interview with
Kim Pearson
Author of
Eating Mythos Soup

Rebecca :
Kim, when I started formating my questions for this Interview, I found I had typed the name Laura instead of yours, that's how powerful Laura's presence has become since I read Eating Mythos Soup! Tell us when Laura first found you.

Kim :
I first started writing about Laura in the early 90s, although at that time I only wrote about her in my daily journal. I didn't think of her first & then write about her -- I wrote about her first & that's how she revealed herself. She came out my fingers & grew literally under my hands. I felt her as a presence within & without. I started getting to know Laura by asking her questions about herself & writing down her answers. Later she began asking me questions & I wrote those answers down. This dialogue is how the form of Eating Mythos Soup evolved. Somewhere near the middle of this process I realized I was writing a book...or she was!

Rebecca :
All your stories are about eating -- you describe the texture of things edible in ways I had not thought about. Tell us about your title Eating Mythos Soup.

Kim :
Well, not all of them are about eating, but many are. That's what Laura's function is – she literally eats people's stories. Not only eats them, but digests & excretes them. She finds ALL of them delicious.

Metaphors of eating are so useful -- everyone can relate to them. The process of nourishment & digestion is a circular, cyclical one, & Laura is made of circles & cycles. She creates, celebrates, & rides those circles & cycles. When she takes in your story -- slurping, chewing, sucking, swallowing -- you know she has truly experienced that story; she has made it real & meaningful. & when the story passes out of her body, leaving rich fertilizer behind, you know that through Laura your story has enabled future growth & brought you redemption.

According to Webster, the word mythos means “a pattern of beliefs expressing often symbolically the characteristic or prevalent attitudes in a group or culture.” In other words, mythos means the stories of any given people.

I chose the metaphor of soup because soup combines a bunch of unrelated foods & makes them into something else. I think Laura's favorite soup would be something like chicken vegetable, where carrots taste like carrots & the texture of peas is discernibly different than beans, & where although onions permeate the broth, you can still taste the chicken. Yet the soup is more than the sum of its parts -- it's chicken vegetable soup, a new thing entirely.

So the name of the book is Eating Mythos Soup because that is what Laura does.

Rebecca :
One story, A Story of Words, made me laugh & shiver all at the same time. What are words to you?

Kim :
I guess the prosaic answer would be that words are tools, like building blocks. You string a few together to communicate an idea or a picture. Words are not the beginning or the end. They're in the middle of a spiral. Words began when someone had an idea or a vision that they had a need to communicate. The first thing they did was make a sound, which in writing is represented by a letter. String a few sounds or letters together & you get a word. String a few words together & you get phrases or sentences, to communicate a more complex idea. String a few phrases together & you get whole worlds of ideas & visions, which in turn give rise to more ideas & visions. & so it goes – ideas to sounds to words to phrases to ideas again. Words are in the middle of that whole process.

But that's not the whole truth. Words are beautiful just by themselves, like sounds are beautiful in themselves. You don't have to have literature or symphonies to have beauty. I think of individual human beings in the same way. If you were God, you might view individuals as tools, or building blocks in your world creation, just as means to an end. You string a few together & you might get a new story. But they are also beautiful just by themselves.

Rebecca :
Where did A Fifth Avenue Story come from?

Kim :
A Fifth Avenue Story is an attempt to explain why the storyteller loved someone once, & why she lost him. It's loosely autobiographical, but then almost all writing is. We bandy the word love around, & everyone thinks they know what it means. But of course it's really a great mystery, meaning different things to different people. I could tell you why I respect someone, or admire them, or enjoy their company, & my words may convince you too to respect, admire & enjoy them. But if I tell you why I love someone, no matter how eloquent my words, you will not fall in love with him just from hearing or reading my words. I don't think you can explain love in rational terms because it's not a rational emotion. It's not an emotion at all, it's a force & a presence & a reality outside normal reality. Like time or space, it's a concept so deeply ingrained & necessary that only metaphor can begin to describe it.

Rebecca :
At your booth at the Seattle October Bookfest, you displayed books of memoirs you had helped people write. Tell us about your company, Primary Sources, how you help people write the stories of their lives & how we can get in touch with you.

Kim :
Primary Sources offers unique & creative ways for individuals, families & businesses to tell their valuable stories. I help you write yours or your family's memoirs, promote your business with great communications tools, facilitate classes that awaken you to yourself, & offer masks & fiction to augment your storytelling prowess.

Why should a person tell or write their story? Because your life is important! Telling & preserving your stories is important. Our stories connect us to each other, to the future, & to the past. What you have done matters.

Contrary to what many people believe, telling your stories is not about ego. It is about healing. The process of memoir leads inevitably to understanding -- a deeper understanding of ourselves & our motives, understanding of others' actions & motives, understanding of circumstances & situations. From understanding comes forgiveness, a prime component of healing.

Telling your stories is about history. Your stories are the future's primary sources. You are a part of history, playing your role in the powerful drama of earth.

Telling your stories is about wisdom, & the natural role of the Elder. The wisdom, insight & spirit contained in your stories can literally change the course of someone's life ... if they are told.

So many of us do not tell our stories, & when we pass from this earth, our stories go with us. We make wills to ensure that our possessions are passed on to our loved ones, to people who will cherish them. But possessions are just things. Stories are alive. The greatest gift you can give your loved ones -- your friends, your family, your children, your descendants -- is to tell your unique stories!

I help individuals & families tell their unique & valuable stories. I write their memoirs for them, or I teach them through my classes to write their own stories. If I'm doing a memoir for someone, I interview them & listen to them & ask questions that draw out the meaning, color & drama which I know is there, just waiting to be told. It is the same when I teach writing -- I know that everyone has poetry within them. I don't just believe it, I know it. So far I have never been proved wrong.

I also help businesses write their stories. When I first decided to write marketing materials for small businesses, it was because it seemed to be a more commercial proposition than memoir writing (I have a mortgage too!) To my delight, I found that the process & the results are the same as helping people write their memoirs. Businesses have stories, businesses have meaning. Businesses are founded on someone's dream.

I have a tremendous passion for what I do. All I really ask from the rest of my life is that I be allowed to continue to do it.

I would love to talk in depth with anyone who has an interest in me or Primary Sources. My website tells more about me & about my services -- www.primary-sources.com, including samples of memoirs & marketing tools. Brochures & catalogs are also available.

Rebecca :
Thank you, Kim, for a super Interview & I hope many of our Readers realize what a gift you offer in helping them tell their stories.

Rebecca :
Do catch my review of Kim Pearsons' Eating Mythos Soup

Amazon's Price is: $11.95

Rebecca Brown
(Published April 07, 2002)