Once in a while you read something worth passing on.  I wrote this statement in an e-mail I sent to Elaine McKay the other day: “Getting reved already about Camp B. and 2 1/2 months to go (my life’s pathetic I know).”  I thought others in NWSSA who love Camp B. might enjoy reading her response (not about my pathetic life).  I asked, she said to go ahead and send it in, and with a few minor adjustments ([ ] is my addition), here it is.
…Meredith Earls

“I have to agree with you, looking forward to Camp B. is my highlight also. Does that really make us pathetic???  I prefer to think of us like that bunch of romantic poets; the Shelley’s, Keats’, Byron’s, etc., who would get together in a very select coterie.  That is why we look forward so much to the coming of Camp B.  We do not go in search of good food, good beds or partners to go with (well maybe some people do), what we CRAVE is that [emotional] orgasm that lasts for days and we are spent when we come back to our real worlds.  It is for me the same, and the opposite emotions, of post traumatic syndrome suffered by vets who come back from war.  So intense an experience that leaving is always to leave a great portion of yourself.   Someone who does not share your experience cannot understand, nor can they give you more than 15 minutes of polite listening, no matter how much they care for you, and thus the standard for your next 365 days of survival comes down to the next Camp B. Symposium and the memories you go to bed with at night to sustain.”