Seeing Mysterium From Afar

Well in retrospect, it has been an interesting year.

This is the first event since I quit planning Mysterium, and is set to go off in a little more than a week and a half, and I have to say it’s been tough.

I see the kids going and I worry about who is going to over see them and make sure they don’t get lost or left behind.

"What about “so-and-so” you know this is the first time they’ve traveled on their own? "

"And with everybody so spread out a different hotels right now, who will make sure they stay all communicated together? "

Scraper is great for having eyes in the back of her head and yet she is only one person.
And Leh is pretty great in a pinch too for that kind of thing. (You guys just make sure she doesn't have to post bail for anybody and their shenanigans!) ;o)

Even so, as pissed off as I get at the Community and their lack of vision sometimes, my heart is still stuck in the Mysterium loop,
(*Points at SR388, Alahm and Chan:* you know what I'm talking 'bout!) ;o)
and I want them to all get the best of the event as it was originally designed.

It is the heart of Mysterium that counts.
It’s like letting go of a child.
Yet you are still always thinking of them, hoping that things are going perfect (not just 'good') for them because they are special.

The Mysterium Website has never been so beautiful, and many thanks for this years new design and all the updates go to Blue Max for taking on the entirety of that task, lock, stock and barrel upon himself, as well as seeing to the presenter technical needs and what not.

I am bummed that I won’t be there this year.
As fed up as I felt I was, I didn’t think I would care when the time came, and yet, this is the first year in the next 5 year cycle. (1999-2004 First Cycle).

Horizon, you will have a great time meeting the people you have chatted with in CC and corresponded with via the forums and the lysts. I wish I could see you there and share it with you. I wish also, that I could be there to share with you the histories and the wonderfulness of the people that I have come to know and love, and that you could see them through my eyes too. Sometimes their actions and behaviours are beneath them, because they are really great when you get to know them.
Sometimes it takes years to get to know how wonderful people can be.
(Conversely it takes the same amount of time to figure out they are total butt-heads too, but we need not go there now because I am busy waxing nostalgic!)
;o)

Planning the event all those years was absolute hell from tme to time.
And yet, when the event comes down and all is said and done, it’s the people, and the time you’ve spent with them face to face, that make the lasting difference.

And even people that you don’t see eye-to-eye with in CC, or the forums or whatever.
Its funny,
when you finally meet them at a Mysterium event,
and you get all the extra nuances
of communication when you see them,
anything misunderstood seems to slide away.
Finding out you may have been wrong, and finding another friend isanother important part of Mysterium.
Meeting people and seeing them as they are,
not as I perceived them to be
through some text based conversation.

I KNOW there are a lot of frustrations right now,
with the Community and with the event.
But it is all going to be great, just like always.
It certainly can’t get any worse than Carlsbad! ;o)

It is all what you (or I) as an atendee bring to it.
If we bring "good things" a happy heart, a gentle spirit, then we will find god things.
If we bring criticism and back biting then that is what we wil end up taking away.

And planning is not some “look-at-me-glory-job” either.
It is a sacrifice of time and energy and often resources.
Funny that the event itself,
usually erases any memory of that previous trevail.

I guess its kinda like childbirth.
You fret about it until it happens.
It is painful getting to the end result,
but when it is accomplished it is wonderfully joyous.


24-hour post addendum:

Well dopey me!
It has been about 2 months since I have looked at the Mysterium website, and now I see there isn't even an itinerary posted at the website. And the event is only a week away. Hmmm. that is a bit unnerving. I wonder what happened?