So much energy. So many kids. So many colors. So much movement, so much dancing, so much enthusiasm. And so very much noise.
The USYers, more than 800 of them, danced and pranced and flew and flooded into the huge room, by group, with its banner and its colors and its own stuff. Some had lightsticks, and one group had a white balloon thing that represented something or other; it was funny even though I didn't get it. (That was true of much of the event. Clearly it was funny to them; equally clearly I had no idea what they were talking about.) The energy and enthusiasm and high-octane normalness of it was overwhelming. And it was so very very loud.
Each region's president introduced her or himself (strikingly, there were more female than male regional presidents, although strikingly again that gender breakdown reverses on the international level) as that region's members stood on chairs and howled. But when Jules Gutin, USY's director, spoke seriously about the convention's theme, Judaism and the environment, everyone was quiet. It was the sound of intent listening.
It was satisfying middle-tech, and everything worked exactly as it was meant to (or at least it looked that way, which really is all that matters).
If USYers are our future we will do very well.
Sunday, December 26, 2010
Waiting for IC
It's blustery here in Orlando. The clouds are steel-gray and moving fast, the palm trees are blowing around in a cold wind as if they were traffic lights. It's about to storm back home in New York -- a blizzard, if were are to believe its advance team, which I don't.
We're all waiting for the start of the 2010 USY international convention, its 60th, and the kickoff of its 60th anniversary year celebration.
The hotel is vast. Huge hallways with acres of brightly colored carpet lead to scores of rooms, each with dozens of chairs. The displays for the convention are set up and many of them are staffed. One of them, for Nativ, is behind a Christmas tree -- the hotel's, obviously -- and Israeli flags are draped around it.
There are other groups here too -- football players, someone said basketball players too, all very large people -- families here for Disney, little girls in princess acrylics over their regular clothes, with sparkly tiaras (is there such a thing as an unsparkly tiara?) grown-ups unsmiling in mouse ears.
And there are clumps of USY staffers, and the USYers themselves are just starting to come in. The truly amazing part is the way the energy vibrates. You can feel it. There aren't nearly as many kids here yet as there will be, just a small fraction, but already it vibrates.
I think that when they're all here the building is likely to levitate.
We're all waiting for the start of the 2010 USY international convention, its 60th, and the kickoff of its 60th anniversary year celebration.
The hotel is vast. Huge hallways with acres of brightly colored carpet lead to scores of rooms, each with dozens of chairs. The displays for the convention are set up and many of them are staffed. One of them, for Nativ, is behind a Christmas tree -- the hotel's, obviously -- and Israeli flags are draped around it.
There are other groups here too -- football players, someone said basketball players too, all very large people -- families here for Disney, little girls in princess acrylics over their regular clothes, with sparkly tiaras (is there such a thing as an unsparkly tiara?) grown-ups unsmiling in mouse ears.
And there are clumps of USY staffers, and the USYers themselves are just starting to come in. The truly amazing part is the way the energy vibrates. You can feel it. There aren't nearly as many kids here yet as there will be, just a small fraction, but already it vibrates.
I think that when they're all here the building is likely to levitate.
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