Fifty years ago today, the course of history was altered, something happened, and the world changed

[DFW]

150. Sorry about that!

Yes, Renaissance Weekend is different from almost all the other meeting-of-the-mind gatherings. The egalitarian vibe is one of the core principles. It is nothing like the TED talks, where some guru imparts wisdom to the crowd. The main tenet of being invited to Reniassance is that if accepted, it is taken for granted that you will participate and have something to contribute. Everyone who is supposed to have expertise is expected to speak briefly, and then the rest of the people in the room chime with comments or questions. At dinner, you can be sitting with a Senator, a Nobel Prize winner, a Supreme Court Justice, and a famous author. Or a university professor, or someone who rowed the Atlantic solo, or just another mere mortal, like me. It's where I got to be friends with Gabby Giffords and Mark Kelly, Howard Dean, Dr. Ruth, Theo Bikel, Peter Norton, Veronica Biggins, Wes Clark and a LOT of etc. You can just go up and chat to anyone (including Bill Clinnton, when he attends).

Just before it breaks up, on Jan. 1, there is a panel called "if these were my last words." For some there, it turned out to be just that. I had a near-miss with "the Reaper" in 2004, and was asked to give one of the speeches there on Jan. 1, 2005. After I was done, I heard someone behind me say, "good speech!" I turned around, and it was Justice Stephen Breyer of the Supreme Court. THAT'S what Renaissance Weekend is like. Breyer never introduced himself there as "Justice Breyer," but as "Steve Breyer." That is what sets Renaissance Weekend apart from all these other fancy-dancy meet-ups. The small groups can be about authoring books, politics, gay rights, medicine, exploring, economics, government, movie music scoring, social issues, family issues, cancer, grief, anything. The only hard and fast rule is that you have something to contribute in some field or other. And that you wear your name tag.

I got invited in 1999, and got hooked. I have been to every one since. Unless you act like a real asshole (e.g. Steisand, a few Republican extremists), you are always invited back. I got to be friends there with Richard Viguerie, and THAT guy is the devil incarnate, the political Prince of Darkness. But at Renaissance, you can actually sit down and talk to him, and he's happy to chat. He'll call you full of shit, and you'll call him full of shit, but it's done in an unlikely, but genuinely cordial atmosphere. And he wears his name tag just like everyone else.