Current Post On Trae’s Blog:
My grandmother died last night. This wasn't a shock or a surprise. Her health has been on the decline, and she's been in hospice for the last month. She lived a long life, and in her final days she was surrounded by her three adult children.
My grandma was a kind woman. She wasn't perfect, but I always felt loved in her presence. She was a retired kindergarten teacher, and was still working when I was a kid. I have so many happy memories sitting at her kitchen table, and I'm going to carry those with me for the rest of my life. She was also proof that anyone who claims that you get more conservative as you get older is full of shit, because she certainly didn't.
I think it's interesting how the body processes grief sometimes. I don't know that I'll cry, but over the past month, knowing this was coming, I've felt a tension in my gut. Now that she's passed, instead of relief that tension is replaced by a sense of emptiness. That something is missing that should still be there. Something has been taken away, and I feel it.
Of course, as I wrote that, I immediately started crying... so I guess my body processes grief in pretty ordinary ways too.
I wanted to come up with something profound linking this to Beltane, which we sit in the middle of right now, but it just seemed hackneyed. Like I was trying to dig out some greater significance when the truth is death comes whenever it wants. The only predictable thing about it is that it's the end of all of our journeys. I hope that when I pass I'm so lucky to have lived such a long life with people that I love around me in my final days.
For the record, I will be fine. I just needed to get these words out while they were still in my head. I don't have some rousing conclusion or deep insight to tack on here at the end, just that gut feeling that something is missing.
Because it is.
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I understand this is to compare two types of meetings, the ‘reasonable’ way and an ‘unreasonable’ way (‘right’ and ‘wrong’ may be a stretch)… but I keep thinking without knowing the rest of the situation, this may be an accurate assessment of Joey.
I don’t know if either one is RIGHT — I mean, Bork Con keeps putting a guy in a position of authority who just suggested something that could lead to peoples deaths
I mean, they put a guy in charge who insisted using the ashes of a dead person for some insane ritual.
However, I think this is a prime example of “decorum does not mean maturity within an organization.” I think folks get a random hair up their ass about how an event should be governed and see all these cspan shows thinking that’s how things should be done. Yet fail to realize that ensuring a semi-professional (SEMI, yes, not entirely. fer chrissake you shouldn’t take yourselves THAT seriously) atmosphere instead of a strict decorum is what actually gets things done.
I mean, for ffs, our board once voted on a budget issue in the middle of an auction (to help support another convention, btw) only because 3 members were present. (This ended hilariously and good for those curious)
It has to be the right tool for the right job. Parliamentary procedure isn’t required for a concom of what looks to be seven people. On the other hand, as orgs grow larger, some sort of meeting format is required or it just turns into chaos. Where the sweet spot between needing rules and rules being in the way will always depend on the group.
I’m not sure how the system ended up randomly assigning you the “Glenn” avatar, but it makes me very happy that it did.