Event before the big event

I don't usually do event recaps, but since I missed so many folks...

First, the event was fun. After baking umpteen thousands cookies for Brinn, it was nice to vegetate a little. Of course, that's after the ugliness of camp setup. This time around, loosecanon had done almost all the setup before I got there, which was wonderful. Nathan also did a tremendous amount of the grunt work that neither loosecanon nor I are particularly adept at. In short, I got to relax as much as realistically possible at a camping event.

I eased this guilt by helping out our camp mates with dinner; and then they fed us! The group of folks we've fallen in with this go around remind me strongly of the halcyon days of Pog's Carillon. With so many obvious society changes that glare at you after a ten year absence, this is welcome surprise. Indeed, while it's unfortunate all the folks I like live inconviently far from civilization, it's still been well worth the trip to choose friends than to rely on the fickle fate of geography.

I did not see nearly enough of violet_amy, mikekn, or beckishadow ( didn't expect to see singewulf :p). All I saw of maccuswell was to shake his non-gimp hand and a hovering face in the dark. Though I did chat a little with Sonja as she was showing off her, ahem, wardrobe.

Someone has procured a bottle of absinthe on a trip to Spain. The last time I had the stuff was probably around Pennsic XXI and it was near deadly homemade stuff. I strongly dislike the taste of anisette or uzo, but this was surprisingly pleasant. I got a vague wormwood flutter, but no faery; just as well, last time I broke a chair.

Ended up spending a pleasant evening with mare_in_flames, sansobel, merricke and Gavan(not the Duke) in maccuswell's camp. Finally met beththeevilone and there was brief WoW talk, with seemed to amuse Gabriel greatly.

At some point during the day, I ran into an old friend from a former household. Accosted, actually, with an accusatory, "you've been avoiding us," kind of thing. I'd meant to pay my respects to the Grog group, but events seem to have conspired against it. I feel both bad and relieved; next time.

There are probably numerous folks I saw and am forgetting to mention. That's really the danger of a write up and probably why I avoid them. Anyway, 'twas a fun event and now I'm both more and less prepared for Pennsic.

Mindless, as usual

Sparked by someone else's thread, I got to thinking about the term "open mindedness" ( Ironically, the thread now seems to be closed. ) My initial reaction, probably guided by the question, addressed dealing with the eccentricities of other people. But, upon further rumination, I think open minded may have a simpler, broader, application.

Zen Buddhists have the idea of mu-shin, literally "no-mind", central to their beliefs. A basic English translation could be mindlessness, but that's not particularly appealing and also misleading. One horrid translation prevalent in new age style literature is mindfulness, also kind of missing the point.

One take on no-mind I'm fond of is the beginner’s mind. Plato lamented the ability of people to directly experience reality, being trapped in a cave. Buddhists believe it is possible to directly experience reality. The only impediment to this is our own mind. That is, our expectations, assumptions, prejudices, become a haze that blocks our ability to perceive directly. A beginner, someone who has no experience of something at all, has the most honest chance of seeing something as it really is.

Ok, enough Zen 101. Back the West.

Open minded, to me, would seem to be the ability to understand something without our experience making us rush to judgment. To not prejudge, in the literal sense. Close minded meaning that the mind is "made up", it now has no ability to understand, no hope to see. I don't know if open minded is analogous to no minded, but I'd like to think it's reasonably close.