a handful of most influential humans... (Patreon)

In today's episode of Productive Procrastination, a reflection:

In my eight years of practicing rope, I've attended a LOT of educational workshops. I'm not joking when I say that "getting to be a student forever" is one of my very favorite aspects of rope. I've quite literally traveled the globe to take workshops, I've several times spent the literal last few dollars I have to attend workshops. It (...almost) always feels worth it--for the education itself, for the people I meet at these events, for the adventures I get to have along the way. Over these years, I've had a small handful of educators who stick out, bright and clear, as people who's classes/workshops/privates/advice/education/etc have single handedly changed the way that I tie. People who have effected me so much that I feel it every time that I tie. Here's that handful.

At the top of this list, always: Bondagious and Thumper, who's class "Exposure and Restraint: Clothing Play and Bondage" I went into so naively. Who took something I thought was so simple, and made it the most important part of every tie, every time. It's not about the rope, it's about what's under the rope.

Tamandua, and my first in person exposure to Semenawa. My first realization that it was perfectly ok to tie like a pervert. My first realization that I needed to slow the heck down.

Hua Hua's, and her most recent Semenawa workshop at Temple, and the realization that watching my partner be in pain doesn't have to be comfortable for me. That seme can be us experiencing torment together.

Fede, who's rope-logic brain logics exactly the same way mine does. Even after 40+ hours of private tuition with him and Marta (bruh), the very first workshop I did with them, "Beyond Intermediate" continues to live rent free in my mind as the most challenged I've ever felt in a workshop setting, in the most wonderful way.

There are other's who feel special, who's content I've really enjoyed or I've really resonated with. People from who I've learned shapes or sequences or tips and tricks that stick with me, some more than others. But this small collection of humans, at these workshops in particular, feel so important to my journey. They feel like little milestones of a category I can't exactly explain. Perhaps my reason for being so damn obsessed with education is that I'm hunting for more of these milestones, more of these a-ha moments, more of my why.