Go, Wisconsin!

Sorry, I’m not much fun today. I’m trying (without success so far) to get my head in the game for a conference I signed up for back early in the summer.

I won’t say it was a whim, but it is a gamble, somewhat, as I’m spending into the red, and I’ll be on the periphery (while a full member in good standing) of the Society of Environmental Journalists who meet for their annual conference this year in Madison, Wisconsin–a new state to add to my tiny list of travel destinations. Most of these folks attending have a bond of brothers and sisters in the trenches–which journalism certainly has become, and environmental soldiers especially oppressed.

But last year’s SEJ meeting conveniently located in Roanoke did a lot to charge my batteries and to make me realize even on the edge of things as an unknown writer from a rural eddy in the larger current of things, I might be able to influence the world for good. Might even be that this involvement with SustainFloyd became more likely by the renewed urgency I came home with last year from the SEJ event–an energy that lead to several news columns and maybe even to the second book.

So this morning, I sat down with the agenda and filled my calendar for three solid days of sit-listen-smile; chat-eat-imbibe while writing notes and collecting freebies for the suitcase home. I want to be engaged, accessible, interested and present. Not there quite yet.

For my chronicles, here’s a link to the agenda, some fixed, some choices out of a number of concurrent field trips or sessions.