Convergence

On Saturday, ADW and I had plans to bring our parents together to meet. *deep breath* and you know what? It didn’t explode in my face like I was anticipating it might have. Instead, I was surprised in a whole other way… I’ve never been to the Double Tree Chinese Dynasty restaurant near the Airport. The reason for this get together can be found here.

I thought that this might be a nice quiet brunch/lunch that would be pretty uneventful and very normal. Well, it was far from it! we arrived and were surrounded by hoards of costume donning teenagers?? We accidently picked the weekend (and location) for the annual Anime North Convention. This event brings thousands of young people together to share and enjoy something that they have in common: Japanese Anime. I’m not a big fan, myself but I do understand the appeal of a fantasy world and the chance to meet strangers who have similar perspectives and likes as you do. The wonderful thing about these types of events is that it brings together people who are otherwise marginalized by the general population because this world appeals to certain groups of people and not the masses.

These types of events have become more popular in the recent years and the FanExpo of Toronto which started over a decade ago, continues to draw huge crowds of people together to share a common interest. It’s even grown to satellite out in Vancouver! I think it’s amazing that an idea or story can bring so many people together to share and enjoy the I felt it was very fitting that in the background of our own coming together of sorts was another type of coming together of people. I think that we get too wrapped up in the whole business of our own lives that we forget to recognize the importance of families, community and great ideas!

Cheers to the good, courage and amazing, in people!