The Mad Happy Dance Party

Today was the last day of the conference and I was both hopeful and sad. I hate endings.

We got up for breakfast and then to listen to Dr. Marc speak with Ken Wilber, in a sort of "interview". It was basic theory stuff, but some fun personal stuff about him as well. He does tend to go on and Marc was receiving many notes to "interrupt him" from taskmaster Dianne Hamilton much to the amusement of the audience. But I'm glad Marc let Wilber go on because it gave me a better idea of why people love the man so much. What's in it for me, you ask? Being part of Wilber 6.0, the next version of the Integral theory which belongs now to the community, as it unfolds and morphs and shifts Integral in order to take over the world! Well, at least that's what I'd like to do with it. How do we create a world seen through AQAL/Integral, which is, starting to be, in my eyes, the way to go. As with everything, of course there will be issues, but this model is NOT about Wilber. It may have started that way but it really has spread amongst the community and is continually morphing and redesigning and changing, evolving shall we say but so far, it seems to be going in the proper direction, towards better understanding of being able to see the world and spirituality in a different way.

After that, lunch I think. Then back for more talking. We were asked to think of three things in the conference that echoed the three "stations" of Love that we had been talking about: Falling in Love, Separation, Integration. For the first, Falling In Love, I chose sitting with Arjuna and Chameli, Stuart Davis; the second, Separation, my taking the afternoon off to go sit in the room by myself, and three, Integration, I thought of all the dancing parties, of everyone grooving and moving together with a similar purpose.

Then Marc got up and talked about love and atoms and all that again but as he was talking, used my phrase of The Mad Happy Dance Party, my term for the shimmering undulating loveness of atoms all jiving together in mad, happy love, and my allusion to the Matrix dance party in Zion. The song from that I think perfectly describes that whole thing. I was both wanting some acknowledgement (Hey, a student said to me) and at the time time, I was in the space, of (Hey, now it belongs to everyone!) and feeling pretty good about that.

Then a sort of Bhodisatva vow, in which I accidentally hit a button of Marty's, he got upset, then I got upset and all my demons rushed out and I was crying and crying while everyone is singing the last chant and jumping about because I thought I'd ruined the whole thing. Not the whole conference but the whole conference for Marty. But he was patting my back and some woman sitting next to me was patting my back but that just all made me cry harder because the ending stuff was kicking in and I was really sad to leave. Always building up community and then moving on. Story of my life.

But we found Dganit, our new Israeli friend before we left and spent hours talking to her in the community lodge. We met Dganit at Friday night dinner when we decided we wanted to sit with some folks "our own age". We perused the room until we saw a young-ish woman sitting alone at a table with her head buried in a journal, scribbling away. Hmmm, younger, nose in a book, probably up, at least my alley. So we sat, Marty went off to get food and somehow she and I struck up conversation, can't even remember what was said to "break the silence" but suddenly off we went. And then Marty got back and it was just even more raucous. Instant love. Awesome!

Also, Rae, our spicy Cuban friend we got along with so well in Egypt, was there as well, and it was very awesome to see. So, considering how much I desire present and interactive community (yeah... sigh, I really do. But I still need my space!!), it was extremely hard to leave the conference. But off we went to home, having lingered to chat and it was all dark. Heading back to the big ol' city.

*Photo found here. (By the way, for some reason I thought this picture was complimentary, pointing to the fact that Wilber is so smart, but Marty points out that it is not a flattering portrayal. I guess I still need to work my Wilber Love, although I really, truly thought it was a good thing!).