I've been considering going to Llangollen, Wales for the Dark Mountain Festival. Since it was announced there would also be a week long gathering beforehand called the Dark Mountain Camp, a chance to gather and confabulate with like-minded others, I began searching out cheap flights and figuring out how to pay for such an adventure.
What seemed like a rather straightforward question: "Is it worth going, and can I afford the cost?" has gotten more complicated – that's what undigested complexity feels like. Now I'm wondering whether it's worth buying a ticket for a series of flights that may not take off, and whether I want to open myself to the slight, but very real possibility of becoming stranded in the UK for an extended period of time.
This is exactly the kind of thing Dark Mountain is about, and why attending the camp and festival is such a good idea. It's just that holding an "international" festival is already problematic, that's even without having heard anything from little-unpronounceable's bigger Icelandic neighbor!
This kind of experience of thwartedness is becoming more common. It's been a large part of everyday life for the poor and marginalized for a long time. Now it's beginning to be "our" turn.
Life in a maze has its challenges. There are the intellectual and physical challenges of attempting to navigate, and there are the emotional challenges of dealing with frustration and one's inability to find a way to move that appears to be beneficial and is "do-able."
We live in a moment of transition. This moment will play out in a time-frame we cannot predict. We "hope" – there's that word signifying our powerlessness in the face of what we would like to see – that we have enough time. Enough time to forge and build connections and to learn from and share perspectives with others who may be far away. For now we have some expectation that a trip of a few thousand miles can be accomplished in a day, or that we can type away on a little box and be read around the world.
There's no telling how long either of these will be realistic expectations.
I do "hope" – I'm reduced to this plea – to go to Wales next month.