My post this morning has elicited such a wonderful response that it has taken me to
points of reflection that I haven't thought about in quite some time with one particular event driving what can only be described as the most formative event of my lifetime.
In the summer of 96', I was invited to go to a event called the Rainbow Gathering which was being held in the Davey Crocket National forest in Missouri.
We left Minneapolis, MN around July 1st. There were two of us, Kevin and I. The very first remarkable experience on this weeklong journey happened when he plugged in Dinosaur Jr, Where you been cd and when it got to track 5, it put its hooks in me and 30 years later, it still hasn't let go. "Not The Same" was the name of the song, and as obnoxious as my inner child could be, I proceeded to beg him to keep replaying that song until three hours had passed and he said no more. Now I've never been one for lyrics to be what grabs me, it's always been music first and that score runs in my head regularly to this day.
What made this trip so very special, even if fear stopped me from experiencing it fully, is that I was about to be exposed to the very essence of "Hippie"
Everything about the Rainbow gathering was protective of nature, bury your natural waste, take your trash back out with you, Leave it better than you found it.
If you've ever been near Davey Crockett NF, the roads are like a roller coaster, I swallowed my stomach more times than I can remember as we got closer.
The only real heads up that I got about what I was to experience was that money was no good here. Bring Chocolate and Coke a Cola and you will be rich lol. Everything was trade or barter. I will also preface this event by stating that I had not used mind altering drugs, (Pot) since I was 18 years old. I was almost 30.
We arrived late in the afternoon and had to hike about 2 miles in from the community parking area. We scoured the area for a good unclaimed campsite and found one reasonably far from the center of activity and pitched our tents.
As we walked to the main "gathering area, the very first thing I noticed was all the people walking around nude. As surely as I was never going to do that, I really admired those that did. To this day I wish I could let go of my insecurities and body shame to have the power to do that.
The second thing that really caught me was the natural amphitheater setting that seemed to appear out of nowhere, where there was a very larger open area surrounded by a wall of trees 360 degrees around. As darkness set in, we were spoiled beyond any expectation with a firefly show that made that amphitheater come alive with these flashbulbs of light all around us for the next several hours. To this day, I've never experienced anything like it and wish I had owned a camera or video camcorder to capture the magic that was all around me that night.
Every day of our 5 day stay was filled with magic. My soul was so alive, so hungry that if a cult had been recruiting there, I would surely have joined as so much of what I was witnessing spoke to my souls yearnings that had been there since I was a child. I was a child there, yes, a lost child, but it was safe enough then to let that child in me exist and experience this with me.
The third thing that grabbed me by the soul was that every morning the Buddhists has a mass OHM chanting session and everyone attending would be welcome to join them for a bowl of soup for lunch. I'm sure there were other similar type events for different faiths but i didn't seek them as this one found me through Herman Hesse's Siddhartha that I'd read twenty times by then, starting at 13 or 14 y/o.
Please close your eyes and imagine several hundred people congregated and doing the same exact thing together, chanting OHM. What moved me in a way that I will celebrate and rejoice in to my dying day was the dance of the sound waves as people stopped to breathe while others chanted and vice versa, it was a spiritual moment in the sense that what I experienced would be the perfect audio accompaniment to a Northern Lights show. I still cry in recollecting the oneness I felt those mornings.
The fourth and final event I'm going to share here was the July 4th "main event".
The Rainbow Gathering culminates with the 4th of July where attendance is at a peak. That evening we meandered our way to the amphitheater and I dared trade one of my Snickers bars for a joint.
Imagine somewhere in the neighborhood of 100 people playing drums from the smallest handheld to huge 3 foot high hand drums. We smoked that joint and again, I was treated to what can only be described as a mesmerizing, almost hypnotic trance as those drummers spent the next several hours exhausting themselves by playing virtually nonstop until after midnight.
At first, in my stoned state, i drank in the scenery, the surroundings and the sounds. The fireflies were "taking metaphysical photos of us with their flash bulbs, people of all ages were drumming, in the center of the huge circle, people danced and danced and danced.
As I relaxed more, I laid back, closed my eyes and again, allowed the music to move me. I started focusing on a couple of drums and from that, in my entranced state, the music made more music. The volume of drums being played allowed the waves to make sounds through their combination that I'm certain would be impossible under any other circumstances.
I can't really describe how these events impacted me except to say that what was awakened in me was an innate understanding that with love and concentrated effort, we could do things that we could barely even imagine.
I tell that story just to say this:
This morning, Mihale, and George McGovern reminded me that even though it's online, that is what we have here at DU.
The love, the energy, the common purpose, the emotional bonds, the interconnectedness that is here allows for "music" to be made here that can't be heard anywhere else.
Thank you MiHale, George McGovern, and so many others for keeping the very best of us alive and thriving. Thank you all for giving your very best as you play your drum, or chant your chant, or connect as only you can, in the name of Love and please know that when we do this by the thousands, we will change the world.
I'll close by saying yes, the Dirty Fucking Hippies were right, and yes, not enough people listened, but most importantly we are not done singing, praying, chanting and ACTING.
I love you more every day, DUers and my heart is bathing in gratitude for all you did, and all you continue to do.
Love, John
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Thanks for this wonderful, uplifting, read.
I felt like I was there!
You are a wonderful storyteller.
