Last night I attended Enjah Mysterio's opening for her Black Drawing exhibition. As she explains in the accompanying notecard, which is available from a dispenser on the left of the door, she made the drawings in response to a friend's terminal cancer, but the opening and exhibition is in memory of her son Steve, who died about a month ago.

This was the most moving of all the events I have attended in SL. The drawings are interesting and unusual, white pencil on black paper, and illustrate Enjah's beliefs about life and death in a most thought-provoking way. Friends and acquaintances arrived and studied the drawings, exchanged small talk, and renewed friendships, just as at a real opening at a gallery.I crashed out a couple of times, and when I arrived back the second time, an impromptu music gathering had begun. Someone had produced Robbie Dingo's steel drum ensemble, Salazar Jack produced his hyperflute, and was playing ethereal music. The steel drum ensemble, for those who haven't seen it before, works by allowing avatars to choose to play each drum, and then allows them to choose from a sequence of phrases. Thus even those who cannot play a note in real life may participate in making music together with other people.

While we played together, Enjah talked about wanting to celebrate her son's life, and the way that he lived it until he died. It was the closest I have ever got to the feeling of unity I find in a Quaker meeting, we were all in the same place, at the same time, with a common purpose, expressed through the medium of Robbie's musical instruments. It was a wonderful thing, so touching that I invited some of my friends to come and share the moment with Enjah and with the group of us.

This is what an event can be in SL: a bringing together of people to express their love and support and care for another person, using whatever comes to hand. The combination of the people, the instruments and the art, made a wonderful whole.

A griefer arrived and began to shoot up the gallery. I IMd him very quickly, trying to get him to stop, but actually he didn't touch the mood of the gathering because we were all in another place -- ostensibly the Mysterio Gallery, but in actual fact together in a place which was outside of space time. It really felt like that. The griefer was kicked and banned and the movement went on.

I shant ever forget this event. I hope you will go and see Enjah's exhibition -- the "read more" is an SLURL link to Palomerian 34/240/55, the entrance to the gallery. The explanatory leaflet is on the left of the door.