Love is the Answer

By: Eric Brown Olympia Sponsor (and Adult Adviser)

I have been involved in planning two Cons. I questioned myself every step of the way after I said I wanted to be more involved if the amount of work , the sacrifice, the effort was worth it all the way up to the site.  The inner voice that told me that this was my last Con as a planner or staff stayed wtih me like a bad dream.

When I arrived at the site I sat with that uneasy feeling for a long time, staring blankly out the car window at the registration office.  I was the first to arrive on site, I got the keys to the site, went through the camp to open doors. I was going through this mundane task of unlocking doors to the Blue Room when it occured to me, very slowly, that I was being called to task.  

I was to open the doors to possibilities, possibilities that had no certain outcome, that were not predetermined.  I was called onto make a difference, to stand up, to being counted on, to be part of a movement, to allow people in and out of their own space.  I was facilitating their movement, creating
spaces for people to have community.  

I would be called, not by any one person but my commitment to something larger than myself. I would be called to many more mundane, yet entirely useful taks like carrying cups for water, picking up trash, smiling when I did not feel it.   I mattered in those moments, I belonged, I was community and I was beyond time.  I had no past, present or future.  In that moment I knew that all that the frustrations, the small injustices, the seemingly endless work load, the thankless tasks and the hundered of complaints I had swirling in my head was useless to the powerful feeling I had that I was part of something larger than myself.  I was part of something that would stand the test of time.  I was part of love.  I was the key holder and I was and will continue to open doors for everyone to come through. 

Look for me at the next Con: I will have a staff shirt and keys.

With love as the only answer,

Erich Brown
Olympia UU

This article is from CONtext