Personal
Personal reflections, comments about things I've been doing, etc.
Random Stuff
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Wed, 02/27/2008 - 21:41Last night I had a fairly prosaic dream. I was using some sort of PDA which a friend grabbed to show me how to do something on, and he accidentally reset it, deleting all the data. The rest of the dream was about backing up various PDAs.
It has been an uneventful day as I read through emails that have piled up. I may have a few summary posts about them coming as well.
On top of that, I'm feeling particularly run down. Some of it may simply be recuperating from the trip, but I may have picked up a virus along the way. I've been coughing a lot and my throat is scratchy.
Dream
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Tue, 02/26/2008 - 16:25This morning, I woke up in the midst of yet another strange dream. It seems like I have a lot to process from the AGPA conference. In this dream, I was part of a small group of people that were engaged in a war. It had overtones of the 1950s and the cold war. The enemy was ambiguous, unknown. It felt almost as if we were kids playing at war, or perhaps like the kids in Lord of the Flies, and I never saw the enemy. At night we all laid down in a circle around a roaring campfire, each of us facing outward to guard against whatever it was that was out there.
It was then that I noticed, not far away was a large safe house, which reinforced the feeling of being kids on some camping adventure. Beyond the house was the sea. It was dark and mysterious. There was no moon or stars in the sky. Yet the sea was inviting and I went for a swim, not knowing about the water I was getting into and staying close enough to shore to keep an eye on the house and the campfire, as well as watching for any of the enemy.
Immersed in this mysterious, deep dark see, I awoke before there was any sort of resolution.
I am sure that wiser people than I will come up with interpretations of what this is about.
Experiencing the AGPA Large Group
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Sun, 02/24/2008 - 19:59An important part of the AGPA conference for me personally was the Large Group open sessions. I've participated in large groups at Group Relations conferences in the past and I've always valued the experiences. This large group experience was different, which brought its own value to me.
Post AGPA dream
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Sun, 02/24/2008 - 09:06As my cellphone started chirping this morning, alerting me to my need to get my stuff together and get on the road back home, I was in the midst of a striking dream. It started in what seemed to be the parking lot of a shopping center. I was driving the car and had pulled into a parking lot. I was inching the car forward to be all the way into the lot, but I went a little too far and hit the curb. I backed up, but backed up to far. I pulled forward again and overshot the curb by a greater amount, backed up again to correct things. By then, Kim as out of the car getting stuff out of the trunk, which I'm not sure how she did it. I was concerned about hitting her and pulled forward, driving across the curb through the parking and making a grand loop back to where Kim was. She was concerned about if I was alright and I said I felt okay, just out of focus. So, she decided that I should simply drive home. She would get home some other way.
I drove home through a town that seemed very much like the town I grew up in as a child. As I drove, two women in outfits that seemed like a cross between a clown out fit and a running suit, went out for a run, crossing my path. I worried about being able to avoid hitting them. I pulled onto another street that was crowded with pedestrians. Angst filled, I drove very carefully home, where I arrived safely, without doing any damage to anyone or anything, except perhaps my own equilibrium.
In a few minutes, I will head off to the train station. I will sit on the train and process and write about my experiences at the AGPA conference. I hope to get home safely, regaining my equilibrium, and not hitting anyone on the way. I am not sure how much this is about the AGPA conference and the wonderfully varied reactions to me as a blogger and member of the press that I received. Other associations or interpretations are welcome.
The AGPA Dance
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Sat, 02/23/2008 - 08:54Perhaps the AGPA dance is a good metaphor for the whole AGPA experience, or perhaps my whole relationship with group psychotherapy. People asked if I would be going. I thought it would be fun and said I would be interested. However, I didn't have a ticket. There is a board where people leave messages and share information. People told me that I could check the board to see if anyone was had a ticket to give away. I could even leave a message on the board to see if someone would respond.
I checked the board several times,but nothing turned up. I was dubious about getting a ticket by leaving a message on the board, so I prepared myself for returning to my friends' house and spending the evening writing. Yet I ran into some people that I knew from the mailing list. We sat around having coffee and talked. People drifted in and out and at one point it was there was a lively discussion with quite a few people. A discussion came up about people having extra tickets and I expressed my interest. Before I knew it, someone had given me a ticket, not only for the dance, but also for Saturday's lunch. I am truly grateful. As I expressed my thanks, someone made a comment about how it showed the power of family. The idea of AGPA as a powerful second family for many people is a theme that keeps coming back during the conference.
So, I went to the dance. I arrived early and found a place where I could sit quietly, far enough from the music to be deafened. It was a good vantage point to watch as people arrived. Slowly, people I knew began to show up. I spoke with people I knew from various sessions I had attended.
This is not a shy group and many people approached me. Some to talk about my writing, others to talk about our shared experiences or to invited me to the dance floor. Just as I had not intended to attend the dance, I had not intended to write about it, but as people asked, my thoughts coalesced.
Everyone joined in the Love Train. It was a very much a large group experience, but the experience was much different than the discussion of killing off leaders in the large group session. Instead, as the train of dancers weaved its way around the dance floor, it frequently shifted shape. People would reach out to bring others in. They would move from one place in the train to another, attempting to keep the train whole and connected.
Other songs jumped out at me during the night. "Respect". "I will survive". There were others that seemed to communicate something special about AGPA and the members at the dance. Perhaps the song that tied it all together was "We are family"
So, now the dance is over. I've tried to capture my experiences and share them in words. Now, it is time to move forward, to see what experiences this new day will bring.
