When Good Luck Looks Like New Jersey

Welcome to "The Gods Are Bored!" Did you see that the U.S., Russia, and China are squabbling over the new shipping lanes opened up in the Arctic Sea? Well, they had better tread lightly, because Sedna has gotten wind of it, and She is pissed to the plimsol line. I personally hope She smites the politicians first and the ship captains second, but I don't particularly care what order She chooses. Transporting crude oil across seas that are thawed because of the burning of crude oil is just ... oh, for the love of fruit flies. How bad can it get?

You go, Goddess! Feed them all to the polar bears!

Well, that first little bit is not my main sermon of the day. I just read about it on page 10 in the New York Times and thought it was a new low, even for the Orange Menace and his minions.

My sermon is about appreciating the great good luck I have had to live in the post-industrial-apocalyptic-and-climate-change-inducing state of New Jersey.

Last fall I took yet another foray to an event called FaerieCon, hoping I would like it better this time. I didn't. There was even a notable Pagan speaker there, and I attended her workshop, but the whole thing still smelled like Teen Spirit to me.

Anyway, I was sitting in the Pagan workshop, thinking to myself, "Can there be any less hospitable place for a Pagan workshop than a conference room in a Marriott?" when the woman next to me turned to me and said, "Oh, isn't this wonderful? I drove all the way from Ohio to attend this! I'm so happy! No one where I live understands me at all."

Imagine that. I had driven a whopping 100 miles to the event. I even resented that distance. Imagine needing to drive several hundred miles just to lay eyes on a group of Pagans! I'm sure I would throw up my hands and return to the Christian fold, grumbling all the way. Okay well, maybe not.

My point is that over this past weekend, I got together with a few dozen crazy faerie-loving Spoutwood people, and wowsa, we meshed well!

How well, you ask?

Try this: Instead of looking at me sideways when they heard I had flown to Salt Lake City to meet an Andean Condor in an aviary, they all wanted to see pictures!

Speaking of pictures, here I am with my party program and #1 Andy Fan party hat on the day of!

Yes, the sun shone bright on Salt Lake City that day.

What I'm telling myself is this: I grew up in the mountains and miss them every day. But where I live now gives me wonderful opportunities to find people who won't judge me harshly. Yes indeed, I have heard many a comment in the vein of, "Why the hell would you fly all that way just to see a bird?" But not from my friends. Not. From. My. Friends.

I have found the mother lode of eccentric people, all well within driving distance ... and for that I thank all the Gods and Goddesses of multiple pantheons, known and forgotten by history.

If you're that poor gal from Ohio, have faith! It took me a long time to wind my way to the weird. Keep at it. The race is to the steady, not the swift.

Artwork by the incomparable Thalia Took.