Thomas Toscano and I share “Talking To Animals,” my weekly two hour broadcast out of WBTNAM, Bennington. This is a local community radio station, but we seem to have become  a national broadcast.

Thomas in his other life was – is – a conductor and composer, one part Diva, one part prodigy, one part story teller. Conductors, like writers, are always telling a story, they just use different tools.

It is not easy for him to find a lot of work in Southwestern Vermont. His heart and soul seem to be poured into the radio station.

I use my fingers to tell my stories, Thomas uses his whole body. I’m not sure I’ve ever met anyone quite like Thomas, we are both a bit crazy, we  have trouble fitting in, we cannot abide being told what to do, and we both have been gifted with the Creative Spark.

Beneath the intensity is a gracious, generous and very passionate soul. I think he has known some rough times and some glorious times. New York is like that, I know, I lived there three different times.

Right now, Thomas is devoting himself to saving this community radio station where we do our show together. We get along very well, respect one another, listen to each other.

We have very different points of view and perspectives, that is what makes the program so interesting. Neither of us hates disagreement, we live off of it.

Thomas is volatile, he’s not into long-term planning or relationships, the future will be exciting if unknowable. I’m  not so even-tempered myself. Trust but verify.

Yet the chemistry between is is real and evident. I’m not sure if we are much alike, or totally different, perhaps a bit of each. We each exist in a parallel universe, living out our Resistance Of One.

Each of us has staked our lives on keeping our independence as almost everyone we know has been devoured by the Corporate Juggernaut. It feels as if we were both running for our lives all of our lives. For me, the running stopped here, in the country, on my farm, with Maria.

Every time we thought we  found a safe haven, we were wrong. Maybe there are no safe havens. Thomas and I both live day by day. We both love to create things, Thomas his community radio station, me, my blog and farm and photos.

I’m not sure if we are friends or not yet, I think we are getting close. It takes me a long time. Like a lot of outward cynics – sure, like me – there is something vulnerable and spiritual underneath.

As we were waiting to go on the air today, some classical guitar music came over the studio speaker. Thomas was transformed, he began to move his hands, his head, his whole body was in sync with the beautiful music.

I saw right away he was conducting, and it was touching and powerful.

I grabbed my Iphone, the scene was so  real and beautiful to me I wanted to capture it on video. I saw the true musical soul of this man, right through his idiosyncratic, passionate, temperamental self.

Thomas surprised me, he balked, and shook his head, and stopped moving. He never minds being photographed.  “No, no, no,” he said. I said I was surprised, a conductor most of his life. Was he shy?

He didn’t answer, also unusual.

But he was, is, shy. I think it was too personal and intense a moment for  him to share, to reveal himself in that way. I put the phone away. I never take picture of anyone who doesn’t want to be photographed

Later, we were talking about bobcats, and he was regaling us with his memory of meeting a bobcat in the woods, and once again, his whole body and spirit came into the telling of the story.

All creatives – me, Maria, Thomas – tell stories, each in our own way, using our different tools. This is what the Creative Spark is all about.

Come and see it in Thomas’s story of meeting the bobcat.