Thanks for commenting so eloquently. I love it when students post and share their reflections, and I agree that perhaps Dylan Day is about the search for purpose and meaning beyond “perfection.” Perhaps that makes it perfect, after all.

It is so fascinating and fulfilling to me that students amidst a whirlwind of studying for Advanced Placement tests and final exams can put away our notes and relax into the Dylan Day experience just for the fun of it. It’s nice to know that our two impulses (to perform well academically, and to seize enjoyment in life) can be reconciled in our world.

And perhaps this catharsis is similar to your experience on Friday – the realization and subsequent acceptance that we must embrace the creative, the time-honored, and the good in our lives. When we ask ourselves why we’re here, really, perhaps the best answer strays from “strict perfection” and tends more toward “… to create artistic and emotional beauty… to combine seemingly unrelated ideas into something new… to empathize with others… and to stretch beyond the quotidian in pursuit of purpose and meaning.” (Pink, A Whole New Mind.)

~ CChang