Monday, May 5, 2008

Maypole


I’m back from my trip to DC, having wallowed in absurd amounts of tree pollen and dodged tent caterpillars falling like fat, leggy raindrops from the tree in my friend Liz’s front yard. Spring may have come to New York, but DC puts New York to shame. Our nation’s capital is overflowing with seasonal fertility, and I don’t mean the government. (I don’t think.)

I went to DC to meet with a group of fellow bloggers. Reya and Barbara brought a group of us together for a barbecue and a celebratory springtime dance around an actual maypole, occasioned by the visit of Lettuce from England. I don’t think I’d ever seen a real maypole before Saturday, but now I can say that I have experienced the weaving, ribbony silliness of a maypole dance.


Before we started, Reya instructed us to grasp our particular ribbon and imagine something that we want for ourselves, and then to grasp the pole and fill it with sexual energy (!). Then we wove around each other until we’d braided all the ribbons in a perfectly imperfect pattern, and tied them off with a bouquet.


That interwoven braid is a perfect metaphor for the entire weekend. Not only did I get to mingle with my fellow bloggers, but I rode in Gary's cute new Volkswagen, spent time with my friend Liz in Greenbelt, and visited with my high school friend Kevin and my Peace Corps friends Doreen and Hakim, and their kids Ramzy and Tarek. Many individual strands came together to weave this weekend’s DC experience.

I also ran five miles this morning, which felt great after a day of barbecue and wine and dessert! And I went to a plant nursery -- an exotic errand for a Manhattanite with a studio apartment -- and helped Liz collect pepper plants and an odd assortment of flowers for her yard. Afterwards, sitting on Liz’s porch, the aforementioned caterpillars creeping around me, I could actually see the pollen swirling down through the sunlight. What a world! What a season!

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

Beautiful, Steve! Thanks for sharing your experience. I wish I could have been there too.

The weaving of many different lives together ... how wonderful.

Anonymous said...

Oh yeah! This is such a complicated, exquisite and beautiful planet. I agree.

Your pics are fabulous, the day was wonderful. SO GLAD YOU WERE THERE!!

Next time we'll meet in your city.

Anonymous said...

Sounds as if you packed in a lot of experiences to remember.

Anonymous said...

sigh.
missing you all and all of it. But tis warm and sunny and blossomy here too, without the fat caterpillars, so i probably shouldn't complain.

lovely lovely pics.

Anonymous said...

was a wonderful weekend in metro dc!! nice to learn that the maypole party was only one of many magical (to use barbara's apt adjective) moments in store for you.... 'twas a wonderful gathering.

thanks for sharing the pictures (here and on flickr)...when I return home, I intend to check out the flickr thing a bit more - and put up the pictures I took from the party as well....

Anonymous said...

[my word verification was: slsvete which seems to be some sort of combination of steve and svelte. :o)]


hahaha and the next one is: ayhauk
which sounds like something to do with pollen allergy...

Anonymous said...

You are photographer and dishwasher extraordinaire! I'm so pleased to have finally met you after hearing Reya talk about you forever. Your pictures are such a wonderful memory of our day of Blogger fun!

Anonymous said...

I never knew anything about the Maypole-- the symbolism and such. Maypoles seem to be making a comeback!

More bloggy parties in the future!

Anonymous said...

You have been tagged. Don't feel obligated if you hate memes, but I would look forward to seeing how you respond to this!

Anonymous said...

Sorry I missed this!
Fab photos :-)

(Secretly wondering what I might have wished for)

Anonymous said...

It was so great to meet you! I enjoyed our talk about movies and such...

We'll have to keep in touch so we can see how our maypole "wishes" turned out!

Anonymous said...

Ah-choo!

Anonymous said...

I was hoping I'd get a profound word-verification thingie, but alas, 'tis gibberish. But no matter! It was a blast, good sir, and made all the more blast-ier by your participation! Righto!

And I think you must have earned bonus points for being the tallest creature there. Yes?