Wheeeeooo

Busy, stressfull, rollercoastery week. Resignations and rebirth. The community response has been overwhelmingly positive. The DRC response was pretty close to the same. We were braced for a firestorm that never came. I like that!

Cate wants initiative, by the Maker, I'll give her initiative. No more sitting hamstrung, amen!

Blade and I have a 'date' to go check out Eder Delin tonight. So I've been avoiding everyone's conversations about it, the suspense is driving me batty!!

The problem is not here

Some people are using the recent Liaisons issues as proof that the Liaison concept sucks, and should be ditched.

I disagree. The concept is a damn good one. The management of that concept has been pitiful. There are things we could be doing with and for the DRC, but that requires the DRC to give a litle on their end.

Sure, there's the usual suspects, doing much wailing and gnashing of teeth about Liaisons "establish(ing) themselves as some sort of lord and master(s)". It's always the same people, 'bout half a dozen of them, who only seem to come out to play when there looks like there might be a crack in the Liaison's armour.

Fortunately, everyone, even the people who might disagree with Liaison activity constructively, can recognize them for what they are, and mostly ignore them.

A pilgramage to D'ni

pil·grim –noun
1. A person who journeys, esp. a long distance, to some sacred place as an act of religious devotion
2. A traveler or wanderer, esp. in a foreign place.
3. One who embarks on a quest for something conceived of as sacred.

...English biologist, Rupert Sheldrake, was asked where he would begin to effect change in the world...He said "I would change tourism into pilgrimage, help tourists become pilgrims."

What is the difference between a tourist and a pilgrim? ...tourists take pictures. Pilgrims...go farther, they sit and meditate, they light candles...When traveling as pilgrims, we come with vunerability and humility. The pilgrim participates, the tourist observes.

~Lauren Artress

Do you come to D'ni to observe, or participate? Are you here just to ooh at the pretty sights, or do you take to heart 'find a way, make a home?'

It's an interesting thought, being a pilgrim of D'ni. Coming to a place with the intent of honoring the spirit, the soul of a place, but also a pilgrim, in the sense of finding a new path, a new way, a place to call home.

What would being a D'ni pilgrim entail? Converting to some old D'ni religion? Silly thought, that. Being a D'ni pilgrim means only to walk in the space with respect, with mindfullness of where we are, and those who have walked that space before.

Ask someone who's visited Pompeii. It's nigh on impossible to walk through there without feeling the brush of the souls who died suddently there. But we can honor the D'ni, without turning the place into a giant museum/mausoleum, where we all must be solemn and sorrowful. The D'ni laughed, and lived, and loved in this space. We honor their spirits by bringing life back into the cavern.

Being a D'ni pilgrim, and not just a tourist, also means being willing to be a part of the new D'ni. Being willing to experience D'ni as a whole place, and help draw the life out of the stones. Not just viewing it as just another place to hang out and shoot the breeze.

When you are in D'ni, do you hear the whispers of the past, do you ponder the feet that tread on those stones? Do you feel a pang of loss? Do you look around and wonder at the space around you, every time you visit? Is D'ni a world to you, that is something more than the one you see every day?

Perhaps then, you are a pilgrim, and not just a tourist.

Full Disclosure?

One thing that facinates me about the whole DRC thing, is the insistance, the absolute belief, in some quarters, that the Explorers are entitled to, and have the right to demand, full disclosure from the DRC on all of their activities. That, somehow, if the DRC isn't telling the Explorers everything, they're being manipulative and secretive.

I cannot quite figure out how this mindset came about. There's no contract between Explorers and the DRC, except, perhaps with the Explorers initially let in by the DRC in the first restoration. The Explorers, really, have no right to anything the DRC is doing.

Is it courteous for the DRC to keep Explorers informed? Is it the right thing to do? Yes, in most cases. Are they obligated to? No, not at all. And until a good chunk of Explorers quit making demands, as if they somehow have the Maker-given right to do so 'cause they've got a Relto book, I'm betting the DRC isn't going to open up. I'm DAMN sure that entitlement attitude isn't going to fly with Ms. Alexander.

I am a Liaison, not a mouthpeice, not a representative, not a banner waver for any group or person. I hear both sides, and I make my input to the other Liaisons based on what I feel works for EVERYONE.

oh good greif.

Why is it that people assume the DRC must be hiding something about everything? This time it's the whereabouts of Dr. Watson, and there's a 'nag the Liaisons' campaign going. As if pestering the hell out of us is going to convince us to poke at the DRC any more than we already have.

Our first term, *every single time* we met up with the DRC, one of us asked if there'd been any word from Dr. Watson, or Sharper. The answer was always no, and they clearly really wanted to know where Watson was, themselves. So we stopped nagging. There we more pressing things that needed asked, that we could actually get answers for.

Yes, the fate of Dr. Watson is damn important to know about. I'd really like to know what happened to him, and I have my own theories, that maybe he was a little more mentally stable than Phil, and could handle the strain of Yeesha's Burden more... But am I going around insisting that They Must Be Hiding Something? Sometimes, a dunno really means they dunno.

Someone's been watching too many old XFiles episodes. Or are getting bored waiting for LOST to come back.