The Happiest Place on Earth
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Last month, my sister and I spent a week at the John C. Campbell Folk School in Brasstown, North Carolina. This was my second trip to the Folk School. The first was four years ago when I learned to make BOOKS! This visit was more of a sister trip than anything else. And what a wonderful sister trip it was.
We heard the Folk School described as "a little cruise ship in the mountains" and "a corn pone Brigadoon" among other things. Set in the idyllic Smoky Mountains, far from any place in particular, the Folk School transports you to a world where music, art and storytelling are the things that really matter. For all its down home feel, it's a big place with some state of the art teaching facilities. (Don't judge it by my photos! Go visit them at their website.)
We were there during music and dance week so everywhere we went, musicians serenaded us. The folk music of choice here is thoroughly American, rooted in these mountains, but it resembles Celtic music more than the bluegrass you might associate with the deep south.
My sister took a raku pottery class
.
I learned a smattering about screen printing and surface design.
We ate like kings,
made cool stuff
and enjoyed every evening watching the fireflies flickering in the woods and listening to the birds' evensong.
We hated to return to the harsh world of televisions and road noise. But we came back refreshed and more in touch with each other and things that really matter most.
