The Death of Santa Claus and Other Lamentations

There is a heartsong that goes something like this:

The gathering isn't what it once was, we've lost our way, the young people don't blah, blah, blah. The old people don't blah, blah, blah. The gathering is dead.

We've all heard this heartsong around fire pits, online, or from friends and family.

I prefer to think of changing perceptions a bit differently.

For some of us, our first gathering(s) were full of all the awe and magic that a five year old experiences seeing Santa Claus.  I know the first time I saw Santa flying through the sky on Christmas Eve is a moment from my childhood I will never forget. The appearance of dinner circle in a meadow was a like a dream unfolding where love and food joined in one time an place is another such moment.

The magic of the om on the 4th of July with people standing together in trying to create world peace is the a moment of eternity breaking through the clouds of ignorance.   intentions. The many movies that unfold magically during the course of a gathering where you needed a flashlight, or a jacket, or a hug, and it appeared at just the right moment.  A time when we all saw the gathering with zen mind beginner's mind.

Over time, we start looking at Santa Claus a bit differently. Some of us see Santa as a metaphor for charity, good will toward others, forgiveness, peace, understanding and/or love. Some of us deconstruct Santa and look at him as the commercialization of a Christian mythology of a virgin birth in a manager.  And the list goes on.  In Sweden, the Tomte deliver gifts and are pranksters of the first degree when offended. I've met a lot of Tomte at the gathering.

Expecting to see Santa or the Gathering with the eyes of a child forever is to be a Puer aeternus or never embracing the wisdom and perspective that comes from examining life a bit more deeply.

As amazing as my first dinner circle was, I enjoy it more now than I did
20 + years ago. Now I understand that it doesn't just magically happen - although there is a lot of magic happening. Now I see the hard work that the kitchens put in to creating a complementary meal and the work that goes into organizing the serving of the food.  I feel the love that people bring to this space. I also know about the difficulty of coordinating a cast of characters with strong personalities, hidden agendas, opposing viewpoints, and the eternal tension between what is good for the one versus the many.

This thing we call "gathering" is a balancing act of epic proportions that I love to the very depths of my heart.  I'm getting older now and have a depth of perspective that I did not have at 25 or 30.  Despite dealing with heart breaking situations at and around gatherings such as the Info map being stolen, my brothers hurting my brothers, deaths, people gone missing, occasional outbreaks of negative energy, and a host of other events that frightened me, saddened me, or angered me, I love the gathering more now than I ever did when I saw it through the eyes of a child.

Acknowledging problems doesn't mean the gathering isn't an amazing, magical, mind changing, life altering experience - because it is all of this and more. Every time and each gathering I am changed, I learn new perspectives, wisdom, or ways to love. In fact, when you clearly see the problems and the amazing ways that we as a family deal with this problems, that is when the magic is most alive to me. 

Each gathering I work hard on my zen mind, beginners mind and open my heart to the magic that is the gathering while at the same time I take my place as an adult willing to be responsible for my brothers, sisters, and brosters actions as I am responsible for my own. At the end of the day or the gathering, it is our interdependence that makes us strong and it is acknowledging that interdependence that allows us to practice creating peace.

Creating peace is hard work, it's difficult work and those who complain about the absence of peace without participating in the creation of peace are missing out on a wonderful journey.

"Peace cannot be achieved through violence, it can only be attained through understanding."
– Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)

"The first peace, which is the most important, is that which comes within the souls of people when they realize their relationship, their oneness with the universe and all its powers, and when they realize that at the center of the universe dwells the Great Spirit, and that this center is really everywhere, it is within each of us."
– Black Elk (1863-1950)

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