Introduction

Musician, Composer, Photographer, Husband, Father, Visionary, and Soul Searcher

Forward by Delilah
October 20, 2002

These pages are lovingly put together by Steve's family and friends as a tribute and honoring to him. It began as a birthday gift idea but grew in greater proportions that bypassed his birthday today. I keep telling him his birthday present is back-ordered! The next special occasion will be our anniversary marking 22 years of marriage, coming up on November 28, and then, there is always Christmas. . .

The presentation of this work has to be given in just the right moment for the whole family, so even as I write this I’m not sure when we will present it to him. What does the date matter, really? When it’s really ready, we will unveil it. This is a gift of and for a lifetime!

I call these pages a Living Biography. It’s an idea that grew out of the urge to write my husband’s life story as a tribute to him. I think he is an amazing man. To me, he is my teacher, my support, my partner, my vision carrier, my friend, my lover, my guide and my husband. To many around him, he is an important friend, a confident way-shower, a popular and talented musician and performer who can take center stage very comfortably, and a really wonderful father. He has an extremely airy astrological forecast (Lorraine Lafata). This can make him very mysterious and seemingly invisible at times. Invisibility has its private advantages which Steve has cultivated well and integrated into his personality. Periodic invisibility makes it possible for him to be everywhere — all around, behind, and between objects and people. He doesn’t get distracted, as he has the powers of great focus, intense observation and unwavering concentration. You can’t get away with much around Steve. He is all-seeing. He’ll catch ya! I won’t be surprised if he figured out this project even though we have been trying to keep it secret for months. Still, he couldn’t possibly know the extent of it all!

This is a project, however, on the visible end of the scale. Instead of turning it into a printed book, I thought I’d put The Steven Flynn Story on the Visionary Dance Web site as one of the Internet books on the shelf of Alexandra’s Library. I could have made it a separate site, but in honor of his invisible nature I think this location holds a bit more mystery. Steve is there, sitting on the shelf, a book to be read, an encounter to be experienced.

Once this project was underway, it took on an energy all its own. It was intended as a surprise. I started by drawing from my own memories and experiences. Later, I began researching and gathering more information. I staged carefully timed, casual interviews with him. Steve must have wondered why I was always asking questions. I even had other people ferret out answers to questions. I looked up many things on the Internet as well, such as some history of Northwest rock and roll and a little genealogy.

When I had enough notes, I wrote a skeleton chronology, highlighting events in his life as I came to know them. Then, I contacted his friends and family members and invited them to contribute to the site by writing observations about Steve, a collection of memories of notable events or a period of time spent together. From individual names, I then linked them to the main text. Sometimes I linked other Web sites to an interesting resource or sound file. I refer to all these links as “putting flesh on the bones”. They lend more shape and perspective to the life and times of this man. No one had seen my original skeleton outline, yet I found it interesting how the highlighted elements in the story played out closely in the letters people submitted. All the individual contributions are found in the "Fun with Steve" chapter.

There are many voices and many hands that have enthusiastically gone into this project thus far. My daughters and I combed through scrap books, photo albums, video tapes, and audio recordings. Victoria transcribed lyrics from audio tapes. Laura Rose rendered and edited video. Mark Dalton edited text. Fran Murphy designed and implemented the Web design along with Corinne Hollister who scanned and trimmed things up. Steve’s folks transferred some of the home movies to videotape, though they said some movies required more work as they have deteriorated over the years. Some might even be lost to time by now. Friends sent photos and written copy. Some is fact and some might be fiction. (Interesting friends Steve has, given to tall tales — I hope!)

Some individuals told me great stories on the phone for inclusion, but they haven’t quite gotten around to committing them to written form yet (a pursuit many find difficult to fit into busy lives — or they just don’t feel they are good at writing). As time passed, we realized finishing the project doesn’t matter as much as making a good start. It can always grow and change. Some people may be inspired by reading the Steven Flynn Story and decide to send something to be added. Perhaps other people will start a site like this for their beloved. As we developed this “Living Biography” we began to realize many other possibilites that were not obvious at the start. This project can truly be a new kind of biographical invention for our times.

I will say while my enthusiasm has been high from the beginning, now that it’s time to put it up I have a bit of anxiety. I hope he likes it. I hope he doesn’t feel invaded. We were very careful not to pry into personal letters, files or notes. (We’ll wait until he’s dead for that — just kidding, Dear.)

I realize this could be a complete and potentially embarrassing surprise to Steve. I sure hope not! The reader should know that this isn’t the official story, but rather observations written by those around him, constructed and fleshed out in stolen moments when he wasn’t looking! Steve is certainly free to change it, or even take it down if he chooses. It is a gift to him after all.

A note to family and friends: Please don’t feel slighted if we left something or someone out. There are undoubtedly unfinished facts and stories to be added. Steve is welcome to change, update and add to these pages as time goes by, or perhaps his family and friends will annually add to it for his birthday. This can be a work in progress and it holds plenty of opportunity as such. If you would like to contribute something, and this becomes a continuing work, as I hope, it will never be too late!

Note about the Streaming Video on the site: We may not be able to put all submitted video because of the expenses involved in streaming them on the Internet. If not, we can send any friends of Steve a disc of the complete site with all the movies on it. They are really cool. Send me a couple bucks and I will have one made for you upon request.

I love you Steve ! We all love you Steve!

Your Loving Wife,

Delilah

Launch Date December 1, 2002
Open House Party 1-8pm, Seattle Time
at the Flynn house in Fremont, or on your desktop!

Email Steve@visionarydance.com with reaction

Steve's Disclaimer:

I want to go on record stating that This Was Not My Idea. Never in a million years would the idea of constructing a personal web site have occurred to me. And if anyone had suggested it, my instant response would have been: "No Way." I was not consulted ... I was surprised with a done-deal.

But this was the brain-child of my remarkable wife Delilah, who is an ever-flowing fountain of Big Ideas for Grand Projects. What's most remarkable about her is that she actually makes these things happen. You should see the things she gets grown adults to willingly do. When she catches fire with a Big Idea, such as this one, all one can do is say... "OK, Way."

So, while it is completely contrary to my basic nature to push my life's story out there in this way, I have to acknowledge this project as an overwhelming and true gift of love from Delilah and the many friends who worked on it, and generously shared their time and themselves in this process. The reasons I can live with this public display of my personal (and public) life (for now), are that it is such a wonderful gift, and it is a beautiful piece of work on its own, and it's pretty funny (at least to me). And most of all because it is not only my story, but it's many people's stories, all the many talented, creative, funny, caring, and deeply human people I have been blessed to know and hang out with, my family and friends and colleagues. As one of these good friends pointed out, after all else is gone... people, property, civilizations... what's the last thing left, what remains? The stories. It's all about the stories. God loves her stories. And there are some good ones here, full of crazy and wonderful people. And pictures and music and movies... it's really amazing, I am overwhelmed by it, both as it touches me personally and as a piece of web art. So enjoy it while I still don't know what to think about it all... I may want to put all this back in the trunk some day.

Steve 12/2/200
• UP DATE . . .Delilah November 11, 2004