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Jan. 22nd, 2007 11:05 amThis weekend was long, but went by very quickly.
On Friday night I stopped by Borders and picked up a new dayplanner. It's a small one, with a green, gold and bronze mosaic pattern and magnetic closure. After that, wet home and packed clothes and stuff for the weekend, ad when Jesse came home we went to Caryn and Will's (With a stop on the way at Barnes & Noble, since my Callimachus book came in.) Friday night we watched a videotaped interview of Isaac Bonewits from the mid-90's, and had some assorted dinnerthings and wine (Finally opened the bottle of Jazz that's been sitting around since I got back from Christmas...it was just as good as last year. AND there's still just a bit less than half the bottle left!)
Saturday morning we made it to VA just in time, though it didn't matter much because Isaac apparently decided that he needed to stop and make photocopies at the last minute, and we were well over an hour late in starting. There was plenty of time for socializing with folks in the meantime. Once Isaac go there and started talking, I tried to take notes, but I just can't transcribe that fast- thankfully, Jack took copious notes, as did Caryn.
The first day ended up being amost entirely about magic- and more specifically, spellcasting, which is't realy something I do. Some of his theories and thoughts were interesting, especially his little forrays into the realm of quantum physics (and by little, I do mean little, but quantum physics fascinate me, so any mention of the subject is going to get my attention.)
My only problem on Saturday was that I attempted to ask a question at one point, and before I could even get to the question, he interrupted me and started answering to what I can only guess he thought I was asking/saying/criticizing, which was a bit frustrating because I tried to explain that what I was leading in with wasn't what I was actually trying to ask, and I finally blurted out "Are you trying to make me forget my question, because if you are, it worked." I still haven't remembered the question.
Sunday was more interesting to me, in that it was mostly talking about religion, though a lot of it seemed to be devoted to jabbing at monotheistic religions and the dangers of dualism. Granted, I can see a lot of problems with dualism, because the world exists in shades of grey, not in absolute black and white. But oddly enough, his entire discussion seemed to be a dualism of dualism vs. pluralism. First of all, I don't feel the need to be constantly jabbing at other religions just because I don't agree with them, don't like them and wish certain segments of them would just go away. Second of all...the entire argument was modeled on the very thing that he was arguing against. Dualism vs. Pluralism. One or the other. It's like using a word to define itself. And when I asked about the segments of monotheists that don't believe that they are the only way, and don't try to throw everyone into the Us. vs Them laundry piles, his answer was that those folks are with "Us", the pluralists (Though he didn't actually say "us"). None of this really made sense to me because all day, he was saying either "the monotheists...." or "the neopagans..." which is a fairly clearly specified division. But, he did admit to being very biased- I appreciate when people acknowledge these thigns in themselves.
Overall, it was very interesting to attend this workshop, and meeting Isaac was fun. (As I've commented before, how many people actually get the opportunity to meet the founder of their religion? lol...) There was a little Cedarlight-style heckling. Much to our confusion, Nicole and I were both invited to join Mannaheim's listserv. (Mannaheim is a primarily Heathen/Asatru group with a fairly tribal mentality) But the people that we met were all really cool, and meeting new and interesting people is always a good thing.
Instead of driving from Baltimore both days, we stayed at Caryn and Will's for the weekend. Yesterday it started snowig in the afternoon, and by the time we were leaving, roads were kinda slippery, so we drove back to Glen Burnie from Springfield VA doing mostly no more than 25-30 MPH. This took us about 2 hours but we kept ourselves amused.
Today after work, I'm going to that bellydance class, I need to calland find out if its ok if I do the first class in street clothes- I forgot to bring stuff with me. I could do it in what I'm wearing, my clothng is very comfortable and easy to move in. If not, I'll have to run home and grab some stuff. Thankfully the studio is just over on Howard street. After that, I'm going to go home and watch Heroes and 24 with the roommates. And then sleep.
For now, I'm approaching lunch.
On Friday night I stopped by Borders and picked up a new dayplanner. It's a small one, with a green, gold and bronze mosaic pattern and magnetic closure. After that, wet home and packed clothes and stuff for the weekend, ad when Jesse came home we went to Caryn and Will's (With a stop on the way at Barnes & Noble, since my Callimachus book came in.) Friday night we watched a videotaped interview of Isaac Bonewits from the mid-90's, and had some assorted dinnerthings and wine (Finally opened the bottle of Jazz that's been sitting around since I got back from Christmas...it was just as good as last year. AND there's still just a bit less than half the bottle left!)
Saturday morning we made it to VA just in time, though it didn't matter much because Isaac apparently decided that he needed to stop and make photocopies at the last minute, and we were well over an hour late in starting. There was plenty of time for socializing with folks in the meantime. Once Isaac go there and started talking, I tried to take notes, but I just can't transcribe that fast- thankfully, Jack took copious notes, as did Caryn.
The first day ended up being amost entirely about magic- and more specifically, spellcasting, which is't realy something I do. Some of his theories and thoughts were interesting, especially his little forrays into the realm of quantum physics (and by little, I do mean little, but quantum physics fascinate me, so any mention of the subject is going to get my attention.)
My only problem on Saturday was that I attempted to ask a question at one point, and before I could even get to the question, he interrupted me and started answering to what I can only guess he thought I was asking/saying/criticizing, which was a bit frustrating because I tried to explain that what I was leading in with wasn't what I was actually trying to ask, and I finally blurted out "Are you trying to make me forget my question, because if you are, it worked." I still haven't remembered the question.
Sunday was more interesting to me, in that it was mostly talking about religion, though a lot of it seemed to be devoted to jabbing at monotheistic religions and the dangers of dualism. Granted, I can see a lot of problems with dualism, because the world exists in shades of grey, not in absolute black and white. But oddly enough, his entire discussion seemed to be a dualism of dualism vs. pluralism. First of all, I don't feel the need to be constantly jabbing at other religions just because I don't agree with them, don't like them and wish certain segments of them would just go away. Second of all...the entire argument was modeled on the very thing that he was arguing against. Dualism vs. Pluralism. One or the other. It's like using a word to define itself. And when I asked about the segments of monotheists that don't believe that they are the only way, and don't try to throw everyone into the Us. vs Them laundry piles, his answer was that those folks are with "Us", the pluralists (Though he didn't actually say "us"). None of this really made sense to me because all day, he was saying either "the monotheists...." or "the neopagans..." which is a fairly clearly specified division. But, he did admit to being very biased- I appreciate when people acknowledge these thigns in themselves.
Overall, it was very interesting to attend this workshop, and meeting Isaac was fun. (As I've commented before, how many people actually get the opportunity to meet the founder of their religion? lol...) There was a little Cedarlight-style heckling. Much to our confusion, Nicole and I were both invited to join Mannaheim's listserv. (Mannaheim is a primarily Heathen/Asatru group with a fairly tribal mentality) But the people that we met were all really cool, and meeting new and interesting people is always a good thing.
Instead of driving from Baltimore both days, we stayed at Caryn and Will's for the weekend. Yesterday it started snowig in the afternoon, and by the time we were leaving, roads were kinda slippery, so we drove back to Glen Burnie from Springfield VA doing mostly no more than 25-30 MPH. This took us about 2 hours but we kept ourselves amused.
Today after work, I'm going to that bellydance class, I need to calland find out if its ok if I do the first class in street clothes- I forgot to bring stuff with me. I could do it in what I'm wearing, my clothng is very comfortable and easy to move in. If not, I'll have to run home and grab some stuff. Thankfully the studio is just over on Howard street. After that, I'm going to go home and watch Heroes and 24 with the roommates. And then sleep.
For now, I'm approaching lunch.
