I've managed to revive at least one of my two functioning brain cells and washed it off with a goodly amount of coffee. Having managed to kick start what passes as cogent thought with me I started to ruminate on this past weekend. First thought was "Wow, waaaay too much stuff, all good, happened to be able to get it all down in printed form. So I'll just stick to some random thought, arranged in no particular order....
A small standing ovation for all those who worked so hard to make this happen. Well done. The incredible variety of topics and speakers, the knowledge level of the various presenters, the smooth flow of the sequences of the events... all absolutely top-notch, primo, A-number-one, excellento, muy bien, brain cramping good. The only problem that I saw in the whole thing is how in the world can they possibly top that in 2 years in Cincinnati? I'm thinking the ANA staff will have a hard time topping this weekends event...I'm equally thinking, after having met them, they will certainly be able to pull it off and we'll all be even more astounded then.
Thinking about the work and effort of all those that put on the event leads me to start thinking about the recipients of this amazing display of professionalism, compassion, and effort... the attendees. I've attended quite a variety of different gatherings for various national level organizations. They are always an interesting experience. Bunches of people gathered together around a common interest. You may know a few people who are also attending but for the most part you wander around amongst a bunch of strangers. It's relatively easy to strike up casual conversations with these strangers due to the common interest, a few polite words, expressions of admiration for aspects of the gathering, exchanging "Yeah, it's too bad .... wasn't better" laments, and delving slightly deeper into some few issues.
The ANA Symposium was different. It felt different to me and after some thought I know why... it was the people attending. Everywhere I went, sitting in the hospitality room, waiting for the workshop sessions to start, in the buffet line, collapsed in mental exhaustion on one of the hallway couches, I would find myself next to a person I did not know and would strike up a casual conversation. Pretty normal national gathering experience except shortly into the conversation I would detect a consistently startling difference in these conversations. These weren't just people making polite, casual conversation with a stranger thrust into their presence...they were genuinely compassionate, accepting people truly interested in making connection between people that had previously been total strangers. It wasn't just polite chitchat, it was true conversation... thank you all who I was fortunate enough to have held these conversations with.
Alas though, as all good things do, the symposium did come to an end. Reluctantly, we made our way to the airport for the flight back toward our hill. Sitting in the gate area, not really able to concentrate on the book I was trying to read, I started to watch the folks moving around the area. My spidey sense started tingling a bit, something was odd about the situation, something a bit unsettling... I started trying to sort out the reason. I started looking closely at the people and realized what was wrong...it was the people.
I realized that the random folks swirling around the airport were lacking some things I had grown accustomed to seeing in the folks I was around all weekend. The people in the airport seemed to be lacking the lively sparkle of intelligence I saw in the eyes of my fellow attendees (though I will admit to the possibility that at least part of that sparkle was due to our copious use of eye drops, but certainly not all of it). I realized I no longer moved through a mass of people, as I had all weekend, that had so much acceptance and compassion that it couldn't be contained in their skin and enveloped those that came close to them.
I knew there had been no mass alien invasion which had replaced the rest of the population with pod people. I knew that the folks I was seeing in the airport were nothing more or less than ordinary people, just like I am around all the time. The difference was that coming out of the symposium, surrounded by all the amazing people I had spent time with for three days, I had shifted my perspective such that the extraordinary became my new ordinary and the old ordinary seemed hollow and cold.
I'm sure that over the next few days my perspective will slowly shift back to seeing ordinary people as just ordinary people but right now I'm content to simply bask in the comfort of my brush with the extraordinary... thank you all.
..take care.. tim b
