Kat and Mike with Brian Froud, RenCon 2010

As Mike mentioned on Saturday, we didn’t actually spend as much time as we would’ve liked at RenCon this year. I didn’t get to any of the workshops I wanted to, though I hope they were well-attended because they sounded really interesting. We did, however, get to indulge in some fangirl/fanboy squee, and got our pictures taken with the one and only Brian Froud! I admit, we were too chicken to go over and talk to the Frouds when they came in to have dinner at the hotel bar earlier in the evening, but he was kind enough to pose for a picture in between bands. You’ll have to pardon our somewhat sweaty faces – the Gypsy Nomads had just finished playing, and they’re quite the toe-tappers.

One thing that struck me while people-watching this weekend, is that folks who are heavily involved in the world of faeries always seem so… well, happy. Take the Frouds, for example: I’ve never spoken with either of them at length, and certainly don’t know them personally, but every time I saw them over the weekend, they seemed incredibly cheerful. Wendy always looks serene and content, and Brian always has a big gleeful grin on his face.

Maybe it’s connected to the belief in magic and the fantastical, or the sheer joy in life that suffuses the faerie realm and everything it touches. Perhaps it’s just that smiles are contagious, and when you spend a lot of time in the natural (and supernatural) world, it’s hard not to smile. I think a large part of it has to do with the nature of belief in faeries – respect, love, joy, and above all, simply belief. In the words of Shepherd Book from Firefly, it doesn’t matter what you believe in – just believe.