beccaelizabeth (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
beccaelizabeth) wrote2012-07-17 02:41 am
beccaelizabeth) wrote2012-07-17 02:41 am
Dreams of loving kindness
I dreamed something kind of like St Trinians vs Zombies
but it was more like a horror convention used StT's as a venue and then turned out to be made of the ranks of the undead. Enough kinds to fill a video game.
So there was running and screaming and corridors full of zombie walking and the most horrifying school bathrooms ever. The usual.
But I defeated them without all the stab smash stuff this time.
I retreated to holy ground, that looking a lot like a lecture theatre that can project videos, and brought all my friends, and got a bit of meditation going. Probably with a dance soundtrack.
And then I started talking about love. Specifically, fan love.
Fan love is generous. Fan love shares. We like best when others love those we love. And when people show us their shiny, we can see how they love it too. And it's not just about the fictional stories. Those of us who follow certain people around the country, or indeed the world, get to know them a little at a time too. And it's not necessarily because they're unique unusual special people. I've seen some people at conventions dozens of times, and the more you know them, the more they're one of us. All the people I'm a fan of have in common is they were, at least once, involved in a story I really liked. Not even that actually, they might just be great con guests who only ever guested in shows I wouldn't watch for money. So they're just these almost random people. So why do I love them? Because I turned up with the attitude that I would love them, and I listened, and I loved them just a little then and just a little more for all the times I got to know them. They tell stories on themselves, they tell their most embarrassing moment, or the coolest thing that ever happened to them, or what it was like when they met the person they'd stand in line for. And we see they're flawed and human and happy and sad and loving just like the rest of us. It shines out of them. And they're just people, not especially beautiful or necessarily very skilled, they're people getting up and showing us they're people and we love them for it. And then we look around, at these other fans who love the people we love, and hey, more love for all of us! I mean, the guests we love best are the ones who are not so secretly One Of Us, fans. So then, we love other fans. And there's millions of us! That's a lot of love to go around.
And between us we can do great things. The charity work inspired by, carried out by, funded by fandom is spectacular. There's individual actors who most of the world have never heard of who have fanclubs that have raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for charity. There's people who spend their weekends in cosplay being jedi or daleks or whatever else caught their attention and they use it to collect for charities. And they keep doing it, for years, decades even. Acts of kindness on many scales are inspired by and done in the name of fan love.
Little by little, our stories, silly or escapist though they may be, inspire discussions, priorities, values, inspire people, and in splashes of light here and there they make the world a brighter place.
So my dream of an undead con was not defeated but was healed by the generous fan love, because we could share the stories, the ones that taught us how to get through or how to hold on or just that we are never, ever alone, and we could share the love. Bad magic hates the world? Meet the good kind that dreams a better one.
So I woke up full of this warm glow of loving kindness for all the world, or at least all the world that loves stories, and isn't that everyone once they find the right story? I woke up hours ago and I'm still full up of this. It's maybe like being high. I think I was meditating in my sleep a lot or something.
And, yeah, loving kindness needs practice, I need a run up to have this kind of mood and not the one inspired by the newspapers, but everyone needs practice, monks practice even, lots of hours of practice. So I'm not very good at it. *shrugs* It's a pretty good feeling once I get the right mind.
So I'm feeling pretty good about the world right now.
All y'all are awesome, you know?
but it was more like a horror convention used StT's as a venue and then turned out to be made of the ranks of the undead. Enough kinds to fill a video game.
So there was running and screaming and corridors full of zombie walking and the most horrifying school bathrooms ever. The usual.
But I defeated them without all the stab smash stuff this time.
I retreated to holy ground, that looking a lot like a lecture theatre that can project videos, and brought all my friends, and got a bit of meditation going. Probably with a dance soundtrack.
And then I started talking about love. Specifically, fan love.
Fan love is generous. Fan love shares. We like best when others love those we love. And when people show us their shiny, we can see how they love it too. And it's not just about the fictional stories. Those of us who follow certain people around the country, or indeed the world, get to know them a little at a time too. And it's not necessarily because they're unique unusual special people. I've seen some people at conventions dozens of times, and the more you know them, the more they're one of us. All the people I'm a fan of have in common is they were, at least once, involved in a story I really liked. Not even that actually, they might just be great con guests who only ever guested in shows I wouldn't watch for money. So they're just these almost random people. So why do I love them? Because I turned up with the attitude that I would love them, and I listened, and I loved them just a little then and just a little more for all the times I got to know them. They tell stories on themselves, they tell their most embarrassing moment, or the coolest thing that ever happened to them, or what it was like when they met the person they'd stand in line for. And we see they're flawed and human and happy and sad and loving just like the rest of us. It shines out of them. And they're just people, not especially beautiful or necessarily very skilled, they're people getting up and showing us they're people and we love them for it. And then we look around, at these other fans who love the people we love, and hey, more love for all of us! I mean, the guests we love best are the ones who are not so secretly One Of Us, fans. So then, we love other fans. And there's millions of us! That's a lot of love to go around.
And between us we can do great things. The charity work inspired by, carried out by, funded by fandom is spectacular. There's individual actors who most of the world have never heard of who have fanclubs that have raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for charity. There's people who spend their weekends in cosplay being jedi or daleks or whatever else caught their attention and they use it to collect for charities. And they keep doing it, for years, decades even. Acts of kindness on many scales are inspired by and done in the name of fan love.
Little by little, our stories, silly or escapist though they may be, inspire discussions, priorities, values, inspire people, and in splashes of light here and there they make the world a brighter place.
So my dream of an undead con was not defeated but was healed by the generous fan love, because we could share the stories, the ones that taught us how to get through or how to hold on or just that we are never, ever alone, and we could share the love. Bad magic hates the world? Meet the good kind that dreams a better one.
So I woke up full of this warm glow of loving kindness for all the world, or at least all the world that loves stories, and isn't that everyone once they find the right story? I woke up hours ago and I'm still full up of this. It's maybe like being high. I think I was meditating in my sleep a lot or something.
And, yeah, loving kindness needs practice, I need a run up to have this kind of mood and not the one inspired by the newspapers, but everyone needs practice, monks practice even, lots of hours of practice. So I'm not very good at it. *shrugs* It's a pretty good feeling once I get the right mind.
So I'm feeling pretty good about the world right now.
All y'all are awesome, you know?