Wondrous Apparitions, Provided by Magicians.

Back home now. Trying to dig my way out of my office.

Feri camp was kind of a wild ride. I was totally the odd-kid-out at the single-tradition gathering, but I think I ought to be used to that by now. Also, I think I ought to come up with some sort of pithy thing to say when people ask me what kind of pagan I am. My speech lasts way, way too long, and people start to get this glazed-over look.

There's more postin' to come on some of this, but here's the short version of "While I was away:"
- I was in three states I had not set foot in before.
- I met a lot of really cool people, some of whom I have added as lj-friends, some of whom don't have ljs and some of whom have lj names that are still running around in the wilds of my brain and will no doubt emerge later.
- I met some interesting gods... did you know they have a god who is the third thing arising out of a bird energy/snake energy synthesis? I didn't. But I'm in favor of it!
- I went to hell and came back in a little under an hour. Took Jesus three days. New world record! (blasphe-meee! blasphe-you! blashphe-everybody in the room!)

Did you miss me?
Did anything neat happen when I was gone?

Yesterday, ursulav posted a request for people to list out things that they thought everyone should do at some point in their lives, so that she could compile a 'Things to Do Before I Die' list. I couldn't really contribute -- are there things that everyone should do before they die? (She did add the caveat that it wasn't really "everyone", more like "everyone who can't come up with a good reason not to", but still.) Hell, I was having trouble coming up with a list of things I want to do before I die. I used to have a pretty good list for that, but I've done most of them now, which is, in my humble opinion, a pretty good indication that I'm living right.

So what's left? Surely there must be things. I mean, yeah, if I were to die today, I'd consider myself to have had a pretty good life and all, but still, I've got a couple of years left even by the most alarmist of estimates (I'm going to die in a car crash, apparently, but that's another story). I ought to be able to come up with something.

So I've started my list below the cut. Presumably, as I continue to think about it, I'll add to it. Suggestions are welcomed, but not necessary. :)
( Things to do before I die )

None of that Glenn-Danzig-Fucking in the journal today (even if it did get more discussion than anything I've posted in months...what does that say about us?). Today's journal is serious business. (Insofar as anything is.)

See, yesterday, we performed a funeral for a young man (he had achieved the ripe old age of 23) who was shot while trying to defend his mother and younger brother from a man who had broken into their home. We didn't know him, or his family, but he was a Wiccan, and Gaia Community was the last religious group he'd had any affiliation with, so they called us. And of course, we thought it was the right thing to do, to go and honor this person who was a fellow-traveler, even if we didn't know him, and talk to his family, who were supportive of his religious leanings, but not really solid on what the whole Wicca thing was about. And so we did.
( Concerning the afterlife... )