Festival Grovestand

Here's the early report, very early. I feel like a naughty child the night before a field trip. I just can't sleep. I'm having that much fun.

Kristen Ohlsen was a strong cup of coffee to start my festival with. She shared her surprise that Rush Limbaugh would speak favorably about her book, Stalking the Divine. I was struck by the thought that we are all only really safe touching each other when we are both touching the Divine, and that we are all comforted when we hear that "the enemy" is reaching for Him too.

Lucy Shaw followed with her keynote address, Thumbprint on the Clay. It was beautifully woven and intensely cerebral. Lucy taught me that a poet and the poems are two very separate things--at times. She read this very powerful and personal poem that would have made me so uncomfortable to read to a group of 2,000, and went right on as if she'd been reading the news. She was speaking to our minds not our ears and it was a very enlightening experience.

From there I went to my playwriting workshop with Laura Maria Censabella. Laura is a willow that has been struck by lightening and held the charge. She crackles with life and sensitivity. She had us up and stretching, which felt strange until she told us to close our eyes so that we could be private and then it felt wonderful to respect my body's contribution to my mind's work. We did an intense writing excercise about an object from our childhood that cracked me wide open. Then she had us write a scene involving two people where one is giving the object to another starting with a line that meant, "here, take this; it is everything I am." Afterwards, the braver among us staged their scene, casting from the audience. I enjoyed everyone's work and Laura's kindly insightful comments that drew out engaging lessons from each performance.

Alice McDermott closed the day with a staggering meditation on death and it's importance to both the artist and humanity. I enjoyed her reading from her upcoming book. She then went on to "speak in her own words"--very clever joke--exhorting us to remind everyone that they were going to die and not to offer an antidote. It was all right and wise, but somehow grim. I wish she could have smiled a little more, both for our sake and hers.

There's much more that happened of course, but I'm saving that for another time. I will say the nudey show was nicer than my fantasies. I found myself just soaking up the quiet pleasure of belonging. The festival feels like my lost tribe, only I'm the one who's been missing. That's my favorite thing about this festival so far is the sense of family. While there are awkward gaps of prestige and divisions of authority and position, they are much less noticeable than the spirit of common purpose and passion. The only thing that truly hampers relationships is the shortage of time, but that is a simple fact of life that not even the festival's strong magic can overcome.

Blessings, may you be as well fed today as I am.