SUUSI 2008

[rivka]

Yay, they posted the SUUSI catalog!

They've made some good general changes to the schedule this year. Instead of scheduling adult-focused musicians to play at 5pm and calling that a "family concert hour," they've moved concert hour back to the 8-9pm slot and kept every late afternoon open for chaotic community play time. Evening concerts push worship earlier, which works better for us with Alex's bedtime. And this year they're offering the opportunity to be in Covenant Groups - small groups which meet daily during SUUSI for spiritual conversations, and which can continue throughout the year by e-mail. I think that's a great innovation.

SUUSI is moving from the Virginia Tech campus to the campus of Radford University, about twenty miles down the road. On balance, I think it will be great. Radford is much smaller, and we'll have it to ourselves. VA Tech was always jammed full of sports-camp kids and freshman orientation students - mealtimes especially were a nightmare, with huge crowds and a stressful, rushed atmosphere. SUUSI will still bring a thousand people to the dining hall, but I think the atmosphere will be much more relaxed with everyone from the same program, sharing the same living-in-community expectations.

Dorm rooms will be smaller, and instead of three-bedroom suites with living rooms we'll have two-bedroom suites with no living rooms. I know that the SUUSI Board thinks of this as a feature, not a bug; it will force people to congregate and socialize in open communal spaces rather than private gatherings in living rooms. It remains to be seen how well that will work. The one thing I wonder about is what parents will do between bedtime and the start of childcare co-op. Hang out in the halls, I guess.

I am in the happy position of finding waaay too many things in the catalog that I want to do. Although there is a distressing preponderance of woo-woo workshops, which I think says less about the interests of the average SUUSI attendee than it does about the enthusiasm of woo-woo people to give workshops. (Next year I really need to think about offering the kind of workshops I would want to take.) I have some hopes for "Science, Religion, and the Universe" ("What’s new in physics and how does this relate to our beliefs. The beginning and end of the universe (mostly dark matter and energy) and what happened in between. Also some fun experiments done by participants.") being relatively woo-woo free because it is being offered by a physicist. Although one never knows.

I always think about branching out and trying something completely different at SUUSI, like (particularly) "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain," or singing with the SUUSI Cantatori. But it would take up so much of my schedule. I'd have to commit to showing up to something every morning all week long. I don't necessarily want to nail myself down like that.

There are a lot of nature trips this year that are rated for ages 0+, which is nice. I want to do a couple of those with Alex, and a couple of good challenging hikes for myself. I am intrigued by the dawn canoe trip, but probably not enough to miss the chocolate-making workshop it's scheduled against. (The same one I tried to take last year, which was foiled by intense humidity. I see that this year it's been moved to the morning, which should help.)

Yay! SUUSI! I am so excited.

Possible schedule:
Monday morning: Poverty Creek splash with Alex (we've done this every year).
Monday afternoon: Science, religion, and the universe.
Monday evening: Brews for UUs (beer tasting).

Tuesday morning: Chocolate 101.
Tuesday afternoon: Falls of the Little River (hike).

Wednesday morning: Bald Knob/Bear Cliffs (hike).
Wednesday afternoon: Science, religion, and the universe.

Thursday: Gatewood Park & Reservoir with Alex (family trip; little hike, picnic lunch, playground, swimming in a lake).
Thursday afternoon: Gentle moving meditation.

Friday: Nothing.

Possible sub-ins: wildflower identification, "creative craft completion," "radiance yoga," "exploring the forest floor," the Brush Mountain Traverse hike. We could also move the Poverty Creek splash to Friday afternoon (it's offered twice), which would have the advantage of letting me attend the Monday-morning Theme Talk by Dr. Rebecca Parker, who is one of the Big Names in our denomination. Or I could drop that trip altogether. Hmm.

Comments

[lerryn.livejournal.com]

I am glad to see Science, Religion, and the Universe on the schedule. There are way too many scientists out there who seem to feel that belief in a religion precludes being a serious scientist, as well as religous people who are equally fanatically anti-science. I've come to the conclusion that both sides of that argument are equally full of previously digested organic matter, so seeing something trying to find common ground is a good thing.

[mjlayman.livejournal.com]

Decades ago, pre-stroke, I took "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" from Edwards at the Smithsonian. She didn't like my drawings very much. I still have them.