I wrote a lovely long post yesterday full of reflections and appreciations-- and the power went out while I was editing it just before hitting SUBMIT. I can't seem to make my mind go back there, today.

TODAY I am noticing that there has been a lot of personal after-Gathering communication with participants-- much of it on a closer level than we'd had before the Gathering. This seems to have occurred after each one.

There is so much more that occurred that can't really be described here-- such as the enormous impact on us all, each in our own ways, when Hardi was called out late Saturday evening for a deeply tragic hospital call. I can SAY that happened, but the impact on each of us was mostly silent, wordless, and experienced on the inside.

I can SAY that Bill and I *met*-- but the flavor and content of it are beyond words, if it's anyone's business anyhow. (hi ßill!) I can SAY that Dave is a non-stop entertainer, but I could say that about anyone and it would not capture Dave himself. I can SAY that Susan of DT is a fount of ballads, but that doesn't convey how moved I am when she sings. I can SAY that Dick is a wonderful man among men, but the interplay between him and Hardi is far more complex. I can SAY that Dharmabum lit us up with his guitar playing, but to know how much that meant to me you'd have to know why he's a "found brother." I can SAY that Rita's heart led the Gathering, and if you know her I suppose you might know what I mean, but the way she fit herself to us and was still so much herself... you had to BE there.

And that is true of any Mudcat encounter, I guess-- you have to BE THERE. It's worth the advance planning to travel, and the time to recover in the days afterwards, to discover or rediscover what any given Mudcatter is, and what Mudcat itself is. It's not the threads. It's not the PMs. It's the live connection those textual efforts reflect as well as they can.

A Gathering is to the threads like a symphony is to a busy mechanic's garage.

That's how it was for me.

~Susan