W2 - Wendy to the Second Power

Just got in from Atlanta and the Mythic Journeys conference. This year I did the whole thing. The whole 4.5-day schmear! The smaller pre-conference did have a definitely different feeling. Only 200 attendees at that, and you did get to see and know people much better.

Some highlights:
Deepak Chopra read poetry with Coleman Barks! Deepak got top billing for the conference, but really, he was just there for the Saturday night event. Because his plane was late, they had an Grammy-winning flautist perform songs from his CD for peace. And OMG, he was incredible! Electronic flutes, who knew? If you listen to smooth jazz stations you may have heard of him, but if you haven't, seek out Nestor Torres. Composer, performer extraordinare. Another cool thing: they gave the first Joseph Campbell Award to Stewart Brand, the Whole Life Catalog guy who's now building a 10,000-year clock embedded in a mountain. He was the driving force behind NASA releasing the famous photo of the earth which has been used for promoting peace and ecology. I got blessed/forgiven by Don Manuel, the Mayan medicine man from Guatemala. Was moved to tears a dozen times by performances or talks or meditations. Did a fun acting workshop with William Todd-Jones, who plays Hagrid's brother Grawp (the body) in the next Harry Potter movie. It's funny because he's shorter than me but CGI will make him 17-feet tall!

Very tired now, and a full day of work tomorrow. I'll post more w/photos later.