Ahhh!: A Tribute to Brother Blue and Ruth Edmonds Hill

This book is a celebration of an extraordinary storyteller. Brother Blue is a master of the spoken word, shaping it improvisationally into rhymes and rhythms as a jazz musician bends notes. Blue has birthed a thousand phrases, each uniquely his own. Yet when we sought a title for this book, there was only one really possibility: Ahhhh, Blue's wordless exhalation of awe and wonder--an assertion of the ineffable.

Is it odd that a book about a storyteller, a limber magician of language, should take a title of dumbstruck speechlessness? Not for those who know Brother Blue. The word is his (if word it is). It is perhaps his favorite word. It is, perhaps, the title of his favorite story, the tale of a crawling caterpillar awestruck by the sight of a butterfly and a vision of his own transformation. Ahhhh is the statement, endlessly repeated, that "words don't get it," that what is most essential and beautiful and holy can no more be captured in words than a butterfly.

Brother Blue's other name is Dr. Hugh Morgan Hill, and he is holder of multiple graduate degrees from prestigious universities. But Brother Blue is not a stage name, a persona to be put on and taken off. Blue is always Blue. Whether bedecked in balloons and ribbons, with blue beret and butterflies pinned to clothes and painted on palms, or dressed in simple blue from hat to shoes, Brother Blue is always himself. His passionate commitment to telling the stories that will transform the planet, and an equal or greater commitment to listen, really listen, to every single person's story is continual. It is who he is. Brother Blue knows that stories are bread for the soul, and must be taken where they are most needed. He, famously, can be found storytelling to passersby on the streets of Harvard Square. But he is equally likely to be spinning his tales on festival stages, in pulpits, and academic lecture halls; on radio and television; and in hospitals, shelters, nursing homes, prisons, and preschools.

Wherever Brother Blue is found, Ruth will not be far away. His constant companion, helpmate, and muse, Ruth is as pragmatic as Blue is extravagant, as quietly calm as Blue is verbosely enraptured. Brief acquaintance makes it clear that Ruth grounds Blue, keeps him tethered to this world of time and schedules, or eating and sleeping. The longer you know them, the more Ruth grows in your estimation. Ruth Edmonds Hill is far more than Blue's beloved wife and indispensable support; she is a fully equal co-creator of the spiritual and artistic endeavor that is their lifework. She is also a noted scholar, a respected authority in the field of oral history, dedicated to collecting and preserving the stories of women's lives, stories that far too often have fallen through the cracks of established history.

So what you hold in your hands is a selection cobbled together from this great outpouring of praise for the Praise-singer, of love for the Lovers. We stand in awe and amazement, wonder and disbelief (as Blue is fond of saying), and are non-plussed. And having reached the point where words of praise and of thanks don't reach high enough or deep enough, we raise our hands and say... Ahhhh.