Procession of the Sunburns
Class this week was awesome. On Tuesday we had a pretty good seminar; on Wednesday dance class was going well until I got a massive foot cramp and had to sit out for a while; Thursday was really awesome, and truly something special. We held class at a studio in Downtown Olympia because our class is going to take part in a ceremony that is now in its 14th year running in Olympia called “The Procession of the Species”. It is a little hard to explain exactly what the Procession is, because it hits on many deep levels, but basically, they close off the streets in Downtown and thousands of people dressed as different animals and nature themes process through town. It’s a huge deal, but it is not a “parade”, because parades have a military connotation; this event is aimed at reclaiming our spirit by submerging ourselves in celebration and appreciation of nature. It sounds really amazing, but words hardly do it justice, so I’ll post some pictures of last years Procession, and this year’s once it happens. Here is their website: http://www.procession.org/
On Thursday, I also got to see Bernadine Dohrn speak, a former member of the radical Weathermen group from the 1970s. It was interesting hearing her speak about the problems that we face today with the knowledge that she was an extremist in her time as an activist. I was surprised because she advocated that we just live a full life, and do our best to make a difference in what we can; each of us can't try to fix all the world’s problems at once.
This weekend has shown us much kind weather here in Olympia. As opposed to the norm of about 55 degrees, today, the high was (drum roll please) 81 degrees! While I guess it is a sign of global warming, I still wanted to take advantage of the clear skies. I decided to take my chair out to the field, you know, to get some reading done. The book is about how Western thinking has separated to the mind and the body into two different entities, but after about an hour both my mind and my body decided I wanted to play some Ultimate Frisbee. So I honored their decision and started playing. Of course, in this weather, I was shirtless, as were many of my peers. When the sun is out, Greener’s become more like reptiles, taking in the sunlight like it was dessert instead of UV rays. And since, of course, I didn’t bring sunscreen with me to Washington, I now have a healthy pink glow unevenly spattered on my skin. But it was worth it. Plus, Frisbee was awesome, and I got to play with a guy named Will, who helped put together Evergreen’s intramural Ultimate team, and he was really supportive of me coming out to their scrimmages on Saturday’s, which I think I just might do.
Last year's Procession
