This is a photo of me stagediving at LeakyCon. It was taken by the lovely and charming Evanna Lynch. Life is weird/beautiful.
Anyway, while I was crowdsurfing—I was out there for quite a while—I had time to think about some things:
1. The Harry Potter fandom is uniquely wonderful, and the greatest luck of my professional life is probably that so many HP fans became early nerdfighters, because the whole culture of nerdfighteria came not primarily from us but from those early nerdfighters.
2. Although it is hard for me to express it in a meaningful, individual way, I am really grateful to everyone who identifies as a nerdfighter. We’ve done so much amazing stuff together that none of us could ever have done alone.
3. I love being a nerdfighter, and I love being a nerd, and I seeing people be so honestly themselves is such an inspiration to me.
4. How are all these people—many of whom are very small—holding me aloft?
5. The metaphor here is too obvious.
6. There’s probably a better, more interesting metaphor that I’m not thinking of.
7. I guess the real metaphor is not you-can-only-make-stuff-if-people-hold-you-up; the real metaphor here is that together-things-happen-that-can-never-happen-alone, which is a very important thing for an introverted and socially anxious person like me to realize. I guess these days this is a politically charged statement, but it seems to me manifestly true: You make nothing alone. Human beings are not mere competitors, and human life is not merely competition. We are collaborators. To be human is to catch the falling person.
I was there and was shocked and delighted when John crowd surfed as I don’t consider myself to be especially anxious person and I don’t think I would be comfortable crowd surfing on a sea of awesome strangers. Good job, John. And thanks for signing my book and poster. :D
EVANNA LYNCH IS MY FAVORITE PERSON IN THE WHOLE WORLD SHE WAS THERE WHAT WAS SHE LIKE DID SHE SMELL GOOD DID SHE SMILE AS MUCH AS I IMAGINE SHE DOES IS HER HAIR STILL WHITE BLONDE TELL ME
She’s very nice. Her hair is still whiteblonde. She’s super-smart and charming and uncommonly generous.
As for the only slightly question of her smell, I don’t recall her having a particular odor, which is pretty much the highest compliment I can pay a person, odor-wise.
