This is just a quick update on today's Snow Sculpting event. We had a few surprises. The first was that hardly anybody showed up, or if they did, they couldn't find us (we were just over the ridge to the south out of view of the parking area). But it was pretty cold, so I guess the turnout wasn't that much of a surprise. We had a great time, did a lot of experimenting, built a 4 foot tall snow candle, an equally tall "North Pole", and hopefully learned enough to do some more interesting sculptures next year.
But the second surprise was that, about the time we were finishing our second sculpture and deciding what to do next, we noticed someone trudging through the snow directly at as with a big smile on her face as if she was happy to have found us. We all figured this must be someone new who wants to join the group (and our snow sculpting adventure). But then she got closer and announced that she was from The Missoulian and had a photographer and videographer following her up the hill. So, we chatted with them for a while about M.A.S.S. and contrived a few photo ops for them.
After they left we packed up or gear and headed back down to the parking area, ready for some hot chocolate. As we were coming down the hill to the parking area, we noticed a KPAX truck pulling in. The driver got out and said "I'm looking for the Snow Sculpting People". "You found us" we said, and we turned around with all our stuff and headed back up the hill with her following with her big video camera. We contrived some more photo ops and she interviewed me about M.A.S.S.
So, M.A.S.S. is about to get some local publicity. Hopefully it'll be positive and show us as who we really are... your neighbor's, coworkers, friends and other happy, law abiding citizens of Missoula who just happen to not have god belief and want to get out, meet each other, and have some fun together.
Anybody who's here as a result of the publicity in the Missoulian and KPAX and interested in joining us, be sure to subscribe to the RSS feed for this site to be alerted to new upcoming events, or check back regularly. If you have a Facebook account, you can join the 60+ other people who've joined our group there to be notified of new events through FB. I'm looking into a little downtown bar hopping for Wednesday afternoon / early evening as our next event but am still waiting on some final info for that. Full details will be posted here as soon as I have them ready.
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2 comments:
"So, M.A.S.S. is about to get some local publicity. Hopefully it'll be positive and show us as who we really are... your neighbor's, coworkers, friends and other happy, law abiding citizens of Missoula who just happen to not have god belief and want to get out, meet each other, and have some fun together."
..and this is a good thing, to show yourselves as you are- everyday people with a worldview not within the dominant paradigm. Unfortunately it seems you (likely) denied another community the same sort of understanding in the article that was published (on 12-22):
The whole notion of the solstice is tied to pagan roots, Garvin explained, but MASS isn't a pagan group.
“We aren't into superstition,” he said. “There's no sacrificing. Goats are safe around us.”
..ouch.
The goats would be just as safe among any local Pagan group as with your own, as modern Pagans DO NOT conduct animal sacrifices.
Most of our traditions (which you might call 'sects') explicitly condemn animal cruelty, especially for any 'religious' reason. Misconceptions such as "Pagans sacrifice animals" and "Pagans worship Satan" force many of us to keep our affiliation a secret. Many of us have been harassed and threatened due to our beliefs (I'm sure you might be able to relate) because of such misconceptions.
Regardless of how you may feel about our "superstition" (and you have every right to your opinion), no good can come of making false and disparaging generalizations about a religious minority.
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