Reason #872 why I love Site Crew

Today I went to pick up a package at the bus station. It was a package that a month or so ago might have made me pause. It was big, kind of an awkward size… and heavy. The guys at the station were pretty insistent that I would need help with it. But I picked it up off that counter with unbelievable ease and carried it smoothly out to my car.

I'm pretty sure a month ago I would have needed help with it. But working on site has endowed me with a new strength - which may not be obvious to other people but boy oh boy, it's noticeable to me.

but I don't want to go...

Remember back when you were a kid and you went to summer camp? And over the week (or month) you grew closer to those people (who started off as strangers; how is that possible?) than you could have imagined? Remember the day camp ended ( maybe even a day or two before) when you realized it was over and that you wouldn't see those people again for at least a year... maybe longer? Remember how much that hurt - the end of summer camp?

Well, right now it's the end of summer camp for me. All I want is to spend every last remaining bit of time I can there. I drag my feet when I leave each day - even as I look around and it looks less and less like the festival I love, as we dismantle the few remaining structures, as we put it back for the skiers and the park-goers. My eyes well up at odd moments when I realize this is the last time I will stand under a stage tent, or the last site breakfast I will eat.... The last time I might see that person.

The tough girl who I used to be afraid of cried when she left yesterday - going back to her real life in another city. It made me love her a little more that she cried. Because I'm going to cry. I'm pretty sure of it.

the world at my feet... or at the bottom of the hill

I love this place, this festival, this community, this kaliedescope of music and people and energy - inexplicable, wonderful energy. I love it. More than almost any other place on earth. I am not a religious person but this is the closest I think I come to the feeling of being in church, at temple, or something along those lines. This is MY place of worship. It is visceral, emotional and overwhelming in the most happy of ways.

It is for this reason that I am willing to put my soul into it, to work harder and longer than I do at almost anything else - certainly longer than I work for no pay for anything else. It is for this reason that I am intensely protective of this experience and a frequent proponent of it's magnificence.

I have come to the realization that there are people who "don't get it" and who may never get it. People who don't understand how grateful I am to be able to both discover something that feels truly new (but is almost always truly ancient) and to see some of the world's most famous bands, musicians and singer/songwriters. Artists who - outside our insular western pop world - are among the very best and most recognized on this planet.

Folk is where it all comes from. It is the roots of it all. Here I am able to see the influences that are felt throughout the music world that I love. I am fascinated by the energy and the rhythm and the sheer joy of it. I am captivated by the emotion that these artists pour into their performances; by the stories they tell in workshops. I am humbled by it all.

The world is so much bigger than we sometimes realize. This is where I am shown the world.