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July 19th, Yes Meet Day 9
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Again I woke up aware of the warmth
of being in a wonderful home among friends. Every side of the bed is
the right side at Wendy's, so my first moment of consciousness shone
and the rest would take on a tone that was similar. I began looking
for lyrics for us to sing to Yann and had Talk cued up, monitoring
the part in "Endless Dream" that read "first words ever to reach out
to you." There was a discrepancy, though, between what was printed on
the lyric sheet and what Jon sings, which is just "ever to reach out
to you," minus the "first words" part. So I reversed to an earlier
segment of the song that seemed meet, but, once again, even before we
could rehearse it once through, the phone rang and Wendy answered: it
was Yann. She handed me the phone and I sang:
I sing this to
you
all the world
and all it is
I bring this to
you
this gift of
love
He mentioned that some of the Trek
photos were ready at Walmart and I said I would happily transport him
there, unable to wait to see them myself. Curt and Wendy's directions
to the Motel 6 and Walmart were complete in a way that made
navigating easy. Curt provided all the street names and rights and
lefts, while Wendy described the lay of the land on the way, pointing
out prominent visual features.
Soon Yann's beaming visage gleamed
again in my passenger seat and in no time we were entering Wally's
Magical World. We gathered the envelopes of images that would lend a
clear light to our memories and advanced to the greeting card
department, where Yann sought a note with which to remember his
father's birthday. I was looking up at the piñatas, hanging
colors of fantastic shapes, in a row high above. Would Wendy prefer a
rainbow or a watermelon slice, did Yann think. He gazed up and said,
decisively, "melon." I was leaning in the melon direction myself and
we asked for assistance from a Walmart lackey. Next we discussed
whether to get a stick and fill it with goodies, or present it whole
and not threaten to decimate its shape in any way. Amused but real in
thought, we let the melon be whole.
We followed the directions backwards
to Yesmeet Central as I relayed to Yann my story of the giving of a
garden melon to Jon Anderson after the Union show in Detroit. We
entered presenting the oversized fruit icon to Wendy, who was
delighted. Yann gave Chris the pictures that were his and me mine and
we all spread out, flipping through them, showing them to one
another, sitting in shifting clusters until all the images had been
revealed. The process of getting the computer ready to scan the
photos by Yann, Master of Images, began. He had a grand plan to share
the Yestrek with all of Online Yesfandom and quickly became
completely engrossed in doing so.
It soon became apparent that we were
looking at many hours of work on the computer, which would preempt
the plan to go to Santa Cruz. Wendy said that another Yes enthusiast,
David Eyes, had phoned and was on his way here, FROM Santa Cruz, to
spend time with us. To turn around and take him back there was silly.
We discussed how the occasion was "feeling." Since it was mine and
Chris' last full day in the company of this crowd of rare persons for
whom our endearment was clear, we wanted it to be special. A distant
outing might do more to distract from our ability to relate than
encourage it, so we chose to stay home and just *be* together.
david
David arrived around the time a
movement toward going grocery shopping was happening and he departed
with the larger part of our party to see the movement through. I
stayed behind to beat the heat and play in the sprinkler across the
street with two young girls while Chris took pictures.
The assembly returned to proudly
announce the decision to have felafel for dinner. "Hooray," I said,
very much in favor of a foray into the cuisine of the Near East. I
would be honored to help fashion it, and asked where were the
garbanzo beans and garlic and lemons and yogurt and tahini and...
"What was tahini?" the others wondered. "We just bought this
pre-packaged mix." I wouldn't hear of it and began phoning healthfood
stores until I located one with tahini (sesame seed paste). I sat
through another fabulous direction session with the left and right
brains of Curt and Wendy, then nabbed David to accompany me on a
quest for only the purest and truest felafel elements.
We located the healthfood and
grocery stores and furnished ourselves with all the needed
ingredients while speaking animatedly of physical and spiritual
health, herbal remedies, medical malpractice, musical aspirations,
Rudolf Steiner and Steve Howe. I really enjoyed how easy it was to
instantly like another Yes fan. Regardless of how different your
roles in life might be, you almost instantly discover some shared
passion (in addition to the foremost love of Yes) in lively
conversation and find how similar your perspectives are in some
regard or other.
words are only
transportation
through the
realms of exaltation
I heard about David's family and he
heard about mine -- some, just a bit, because it was hard for me to
talk about them without crying. Back at the Vigs, I showed him a
stack of photos I'd packed to aide in relaying my world to others in
just such situations. He had some electronic images on his cool
digital camera and shared these with me. Right around now the phone
rang and it was my husband, Jonh. He was in the vicinity with our
kids and wanted to know if they could join us this evening. He'd done
this, TO me, I felt, on my first day at the Vigs as well, called to
claim me, absorb me back into the fold of my doting family and all
the activity that was wonderful and my thing, and all. Only, well, I
was *really* enjoying the process of just being myself and
rediscovering my ability to make friends and be friends and
(selfishly?) delight in being an individual. The phonecall tore me in
two and I told him, them, my family, my life, not to come until
tomorrow. I hung up in tears and Wendy hugged me a long time. She
wandered down the hall and whispered to Yann, who came to me with his
arms open wide. Jon's Song of Seven was playing in the background,
lending comfort as well, as Yann held me and we danced.
come into my
world
hold me in your
arms
there's a
mystery to the touch
how it heals so
when we're broken
Dinner preparations ensued with
conjoined girl-boy contributions in the kitchen, the joyful boiling
of oil, whirring blender hum that homogenized yogurt and tahini,
knifechop, lemonsquirt, beanmash, laughter, the creative chaos of
contributions from too many chefs. Ironically, when placed in oil,
the true felafels did not hold together in balls and it was necessary
to corrupt the batter, coercing it into congealing by adding, after
all, the prepackaged mix. It worked! Once more the spirit of
cooperation moved swiftly to provide for us all an inviting banquet.
Warm pita (pocketbread), tomatoes, cheese (untraditional since it
wasn't feta, but it had been requested), lettuce, and the golden
chickpea fritattas beside a creamy distinctive dipping sauce invited
us to dine. Before indulging, we women placed some food on a small
plate as an offering to higher powers, lit a candle and incense and
danced a circular spirit dance to conjure up an evening of pure
enjoyment.
Wendy coincidentally offered the
very same variety of wine that I had adopted as my favorite on the
first night of my 2-weeks-free-to-cavort-with-Yesfriends:
Gewürztraminer! When it was gone I shared my own bottle, saved
from the stop in Nashville and agreeably chilled. The light was
fading, my camera didn't have a flash, and I hadn't yet captured the
updated company we comprised with the addition of David. I set up
another group snapshot (or seven) in the Vig backyard. While waiting
for David, in his car making phonecalls, the rest of us enjoyed a
frolicsome photo session.
curt, merry, chris, dawn,
wendy
curt, yann, chris, wendy, dawn,
merry
The glorious golden whole moon was
rising! We agreed a march to the park was in order, to exercise Duke
dog, walk off dinner, throw Frisbee and appreciate the last evening
of this configuration of the Yesparty. Yann declined to come as he
remained engrossed in his website and a pressing need to share the
excitement with friends who were unable to participate. Magnanimous,
I thought, and I knew by now that Frisbee wasn't his thing, but
still, I missed his participation, especially since we all had so
little time left together. Wistfulness was quickly setting in and,
just as I had been avoiding feeling for my absent family, I now had
to put off thoughts of taking leave of these dear people or tears
would want to well up. Dawn and David joined the pre-rehearsed adept
flinging trio of Curt, Chris and myself and Dawn told us to please
stop showing off. Wendy made the rounds with Duke and the moon did
it's brilliant glowing thing. The light was lovely and enough to
appreciate the presence of my friends, but, unfortunately the Frisbee
soon became all but invisible.
We returned to the pleasurable place
on Weatherly Way so generously (have I said this enough?) offered by
Wendy and Curt as a site of celebration to more or less anyone of
Yessympathy. When the idea of a Yesmeet was first taking shape, Wendy
sent the following words to the Yes newsgroup and I feel it is
fascinating to read them again and see how her high hopes for us
became a reality:
**
Curt and I don't
want to leave anyone out. For those of you who may
have a difference of
opinion in a.m.y or have less than good feelings
for someone on the
lists that are coming or may come, we ask that
you try to put that
aside in the true Yes Spirit, if you do in fact
want to join us.
Having the chance to meet Yesfriends in the flesh
doesn't happen too
often. When you look into someone's eyes for the first
time and really see
them as a person, and not just words on a page, (a.m.y)
or just a name, you
will be surprised at how your differences suddenly
fade. Mutual love
for Yes becomes the thread that will tie you for life.
**
Just a note here of encouragement to
those of you who may have wanted to join us, but decided the
circumstances weren't such that it was possible to be part of this
meeting of drooling Yessies. Of course, most of us had wondered to
some degree whether we would get along in person and if it was worth
it to gather despite the absence of a Yes tour. The answer is a
resounding YES! If you ever have the opportunity to come together in
this way, don't doubt doing so for a moment, if you can help it. We
Yes fans are such an interesting and inspiring and artistic
constellation of individuals, with so much potential for unparalleled
fun in a group situation.
don't you
hesitate at all - no no!
Curt and Chris broke out their
guitars again, wine flowed, voices and percussion rang out, vibrating
the warm night air in all directions. Hours later, after the
enthusiasm died down, I reluctantly delivered Yann to his motel and
said I would be privileged to dine with him at the hotel restaurant
the following morning. I returned to give Dawn my place on the
fold-out couch as she'd given David her futon so that he didn't have
to drive all the way back to Santa Cruz. I slept cozily atop sleeping
bags on the floor beside the sofa where Chris turned all night,
perfecting his hairdo which would entertain us all the following
morning, my last -- *sniff* -- in this remarkable company.
my
merry tale ****
Day
10