Styles of Places and Faces

My daughter and I just returned from a weekend at the Women's Herbal Conference. I had attended once before. I was nineteen with a new baby, and felt I needed to be around women and healing and mentors for the mother I wanted to become. It was a lovely gathering of maybe a hundred herbalist. Very peaceful and just what I was hoping for.

Fifteen years later, my daughter has been devouring every book about herbs, healing and beauty she can get her hands on, starting her own herb garden, and running a little business of natural beauty products. I remembered that conference and decided we should go. It was informative, intense and inspirational. Five hundred woman and their babies, children and teens sharing joy and knowledge about the green world, and our female power to use it.

I wasn't planning on writing up a post since it's not really what I consider "geeky", but the wild light in a speaker's eyes discussing their passion with plants reminded me of the crazy look of anime fans when they discuss their favorite episode. ConnectiCon was another weekend conference my daughter and I attended, and I started comparing the two in my mind. Then I thought about yet another gathering we went to- The Altamont Fair. It's a three-county fair with the usual rides and bad food. My kids and I go every year because they enter stuff for 4H, enjoy being whipped around on scary-looking contraptions with friends, and we like to sing karaoke (I specialize in early '90s rock tunes for the older crowd.)

Here's a side-by-side comparison of the three:

I should add however, that ConnectiCon and the Herbal Conference had a wide-variety of hair and clothing, I just mentioned the most obvious style choices. However, at the Altamont Fair, my daughter and I commented many times on how alike all the teen girls looked. Tight, tiny clothes and very straight hair. My girl and her friends did not blend. Yay!