Early Friday afternoon I packed the car, filled the gas tank, and headed up Route 8 to Becket, Massachusetts. Over 130 lgbt, and a handful of straight friends, gathered for the Lavender Country and Folk Dancers Fall Dance Camp at Chimney Corners. Lisa Greenleaf was the caller, and the Groovemongers provided the music. I came home late Sunday afternoon with sore feet and ready for bed.
I did not attend the reunion activities of the Darien High School Class of 1978: the Homecoming game and the gathering at Wee Burn Country Club.
While it would have been fun catching up with my classmates after 10 years (we have not been together since our 20th reunion in 1998), the Dance Camp community is more important to me. I have missed only two camps over the last 15 years. These are the people I share common interests and values with. These are the folks who nurture me. These are the friends who accept me as I am. This is the community that renews and refreshes me.
For some reason, this camp turned out to be a bit different for me personally. I was not self-conscious about my body. I'm a good dancer, and that's what counts on the dance floor. I'm a good person and friend, and that's what counts with this community. It was also freeing in other ways. I found that I was not my usually shy self. If I wanted to ask someone to dance, I did, and was only turned down if the person had already been asked to dance for that dance. I flirted with several people when we weren't on the dance floor. It was like I was fully present for the first time in a long time.
This dance community is the people I am growing--and growing older--with. The DHS Class of 1978 is frozen in time, in snapshots taken in 1978, 1988, 1998, and now 2008. If the class' next reunion and Fall dance camp fall on the same weekend again, I know where I will be.
Peace,
Jeffri
No comments:
Post a Comment