The Crack in the Teacup: The Life of an Old Woman Steeped in Stories - Tapa dura

born in 1923, is a self-proclaimed old woman, whose life is so intertwined with story that she cannot write about one without telling about the other. A well-known storyteller and Gestalt therapist, she finds strength in stories – her own, other people’s, and the myths and legends of the world. She has lived a life that fell apart not once but several times. Each time, she pieced her life together again; she has learned to appreciate both the mosaic and the cracks.

Joan’s father was an officer in the United States Coast Guard; her British mother came from a distinguished – and eccentric – shipping family. Because of her father’s job, she moved frequently from one tough American port town to another. But she also lived for a time in an English country house. Trying to fit herself into each new situation, she not only relied on the family stories she knew so well, but she also became an acute observer of the nuances of class shibboleth, racial prejudice,

Joan Bodger became a professional storyteller in 1948, when she took a course in storytelling at Columbia University. She has told stories and given workshops throughout North America, Britain, Australia, and Japan, and was a co-founder of the Toronto Storytellers School. For many years she led an annual tour, “A Winter’s Journey to King Arthur’s Britain.”

Joan Bodger was also a Gestalt therapist who used folk-tale archetypes as tools of her trade. In 1982, the Chaplain’s Corps hired her to use stories as therapy with U.S. Marines. (She had been a U.S. Army staff-sergeant during World War II.) In 1986 she conducted workshops for psychiatrists and businessmen in Tokyo.

Joan was director of the first Head Start Program in New York State. Her later work, as d