Teton Wellness Festival: Tamblyn has cure for America's blues
Saturday, October 14, 2006
By Richard Anderson
America is too serious.
That's according to singer-songwritercomedian-
transformational humoristlafologist"
Greg Tamblyn, who will do
his best to lighten the proceedings at
this year's Teton Wellness Festival.
"We live in a culture that tends to be
kind of somber," Tamblyn said from his
home in Kansas City, Mo. "It's even
more so since 9/11. My theory is it's
because the country was colonized by
the Puritans ? they
were so serious, the
English kicked them
out."
"...somewhere along the way he found
himself depressed, confused, panicky -
stuck."
The good side to that
seriousness is we know
how to work really
hard. The bad side is
we have trouble lightening
up, and as
Tamblyn can tell you,
that's not good for a
person. He got caught
up in the seriousness of
life himself back in the
'80s. He was a successful
club performer, then went to
Nashville to work as a songwriter, but
somewhere along the way he found
himself depressed, confused, panicky ?
stuck.
"At about the same time, I ruptured
my spleen," he said, "and was laid up
for six months."
While recuperating back in Kansas
City ? the city he had grown up in and
the city he said he knew for certain
he'd never move back to ? he found
help: friends, family, new people to
work with, people who were able to
help him with his biochemistry.
"It took a while," he said of his
road to recovery, "but it was a great
journey ... and a tremendous learning
experience."
Aside from regaining his health, his
work changed. He stopped writing
romantic love songs and started writing
songs about life.
"Some were funny, about roadblocks
and attitudes," he said, "and some were
more serious, about people who had
recovered from things, remarkable
turnarounds in life, songs about universal
love and the bigger nature of love."
People started hearing his new songs
and he started to get invited to events
like the Teton Wellness Festival to talk
about and demonstrate how music and
humor fit into a wellness regimen.
"It never occurred to me that there
was a niche like this," he said. "It was
unplanned, but very rewarding and a
great fit."
He calls what he
does at such festivals
"musical keynote presentations."
They are
kind of like a talk in
that they cover a big
topic or two, pull in
ideas from what has
been going on at the
conference, finds a
thread that runs
through the proceedings,
"except it's with a
lot of songs ... and
jokes that relate the
ideas," he said.
"I'm more like an MC or sometimes
what I call a weaver," said Tamblyn.
"I'm there to provide balance and
comic relief ? or musical relief ? but I
also teach about humor and my own
experiences with wellness."
There are many dimensions to how
and why humor is good for one's
health, but for Tamblyn it comes down
to the idea that humor (and music)
simply get to different parts of the
brain. "It's fabulous to read books and
to be interested in wellness and in living
better," he said, "but I find it
incredibly helpful to use music and
humor in my experience of life ... it
takes us to a lot of different places.
Maybe it's using the right brain instead
of the left brain. It's an important part
of the formula for me."
A good start is being able to laugh
when something is funny, but it goes
beyond that, to being able to find
what's funny and laughable even in the
most serious of circumstances.
Tamblyn related the recent death of his
father as an example. His sisters, brother
and mother were able to gather and spend
the final few weeks with him as he succumbed
to lung cancer. "It was going slowly
and was hard for all of us, but the good
news was we all got to be in the bed with
him and we all got to hold him when died."
When at last he passed, no one could
speak until a hospice chaplain asked if
anyone had noticed the time of death.
"I said 'I think it was 4:10,' and my
brother said, 'At least he waited for happy
hour,' and everyone cracked up, because,
knowing my dad, it was just perfect, and it
just brought us all back. So there's almost
always some way of looking at things with
humor."
Greg Tamblyn serves as Master of
Ceremonies, opening for visionary artist
Alex Grey at 7 p.m. on Friday, integrated
healthcare pioneer Dr. Andrew Weil at 7
p.m. on Saturday, and creativity guru Julia
Cameron at 9 a.m. on Sunday. For complete
details, visit www.tetonwellness.org
or call 733-9355.
- editor@planetjh.com
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Teton Wellness Festival: Tamblyn has cure for America's blues | Planet JH News Article: General Health And Fitness
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