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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Kasey Daniels aka CHAUNCY aka SHAGGY (Missing)

Kasey Daniels is 24 years old and his mom hasn't heard from him since September 12. None of the friends his mom knows have heard from him either.  He's a traveling kid but normally checks in more frequently and his mom is scared.

His parents have filed a missing persons report and so far nothing has turned up.  If you run into Kasey/Chauncy/Shaggy please ask him to call his mom or his siblings and if need be lend him your cell so he can make the call!  Or if you've seen him, email me.

Kasey

No one is asking for him to stop what he's doing, we're just asking he let his family know that he's doing OK.

Some other photos of Kasey (on the viewer's right in these two photos):

Hipstories (aka stories of the rainbow gathering)

Every year around dusk on the evening of July 5, we gather to story ourselves.  By story ourselves, I mean we tell each other our stories of gatherings past.  The last few years, the format has been that we start with 1972 and allow anyone in the crowd to share their story of the first gathering in 1972. Then we move on to 1973 and so forth.  As you can imagine the number of folks who were at the gathering in 1972 are growing fewer in numbers and, for many of our earlies, health issues preclude their attendance.

Stories are critical to our identity as a family, help us learn about our history so we can influence our future, and help create a rolling and every evolving hipstory.

We story our past to create our future.  I hope to see you on the land in 2015 and be part of this amazing tradition.  However, to help you get in the mood for learning our hipstory, here are links to some stories of 1972.

Jody Bateman's, Wherever Two Are Gathered and Further Letters on Rainbow's Origins

Tim Cahill's article in Rolling Stone Magazine, Armageddon Postponed.

Phil Coyote's memories of the first gathering.

Woodstock Museum's Videos:

What some people don't get

I was talking to an old friend on the phone this morning and told him about a Shanti Sena issue in San Diego I've been trying my best to deal with in a peaceful respectful manner.  Given that the situation involves child molestation, emotions tend to be flammable. My friend was ready to "kick some ass" and I had to talk him down.  Totally understandable.  When he had calmed down a bit, he asked, "why is it your problem to deal with?"

His question is the crux of the issue for me.  The way I see the gathering, participants are not waiting for someone else to solve the world's problems or even our own.  We take responsibility for doing what needs to be done in a peaceful, respectful manner.  We are actively working to create peace by individually stepping up to be responsible for cooking, Shanti Sena, treating our wounded, caring for the lost, hugging the lonely, and a thousand plus other tasks.

In some parts of American culture, when a problem happens, people call the experts. They dial 911, go to the "doctor" or ignore a situation all together in the hopes that someone else will deal with it.

That's not the path of the Rainbow. My vision of the Rainbow Path is plugging in and helping with what needs to be done.  In a world full of amateurs, how do we do this?  In some regards, Rainbow is no different than any culture on the planet, some people are more experienced at certain tasks and others a less experienced.

If you are a completely inexperienced person when it comes to medical issues, I would appreciate allowing the most experienced folks to deal with the heart-attacks. Yet there is space for the less-experienced to help out: bandage the boo boos, help carry the stretcher, keep clean drinking water on hand.  After the emergency is over, talk to the more experienced folks and use them as a resource. Ask them to explain why they did what they did. Some day you may be the most experienced person on hand and you don't want to wishing you had asked.

Back to the issue on my plate. Big issue. Really big issue. I've been doing Shanti Sena for a lot of years yet when this situation first came out, I knew I was in over my ahead. I called people I know who have been doing Shanti Sena for a lot longer than I have and who are better at it than I am. I asked for their help in taking the lead and I become the apprentice doing the grunt work.  We are all teachers and students.

Once you internalize the lesson that you have the power to learn and then apply your knowledge in a wide range of settings, you have the power within you to change the world.  Please change it for the better.

As John Schaar writes, "The future is not some place we are going to, but one we are creating. The paths are not to be found, but made, and the activity of making them, changes both the maker and the destination."

Be one of the makers!

Shanti Sena Hipstories Barry 'Plunker' Adams

This is a great video of a hipstory featuring one of the "earlies"  (family who were at the 1972 gathering in Granby, CO).  Enjoy!

Thanksgiving Council

The gathering has a cyclical process.  In Utah this summer, vision council on the land reached consensus that the 2015 gathering will take place in New England, Lake Michigan Area, or South Dakota. (The consensed areas include Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Michigan, Wisconsin, Indiana, Illinois, and South Dakota.

My oh my that's a big area.  Vision council did its thing and now folks are left to figure out where Thanksgiving Council should take place.


Because the Rainbow Gathering has no leaders, no board of directors, no staff and no one in charge of anything, we depend on people working together to do all the preparation for the gathering in 2015. So over the years a process has come together to make sure that planning is open to everyone who wants to be involved.

The year starts off with Thanksgiving Council or T-Council over the four day weekend of the same name. This is a time for people interested in plugging in, talking about visions for the gathering, discussing scouting, strategies about legal issues, etc. to get together.

T-Council generally takes place in the state or region where we will be gathering. It's usually a camp, cook, council, share heart songs kinda of thing. Often but not always, the people at T-Council pick the dates for the Scout Rendezvous and Spring Council. Often times a PO box is established for snail mail and a banking council is formed to deal with any donations.

As with all things Rainbow, no experience is necessary, just a willingness to participate. Keep in mind this is not a gathering, it's a working council and the way this council unfolds sets the tone for the gathering.

Generally folks in the area take the lead on finding a place to hold T-Council.   As we prepared for the gathering in 2014, we struggled to find people in the consented to states to focalize T-Council.  We ended up with weekly conference calls by interested people before finally determining where to go. Given the number of areas included in the consensus for 2015, seem to me that folks in all these states should start holding weekly conference calls to come to some common understanding sooner rather than later.

I'm hoping that there will be a real mix of generations at T-Council. We need older people, we need younger people, we need more experienced gatherers and we need less experienced gatherers to come together to create a vision for a peaceful, healing and fun gathering in 2015. Be the change you want to see in this world.

For the location of this year's Thanksgiving Council, click here.

Forest Service and the Rainbow Gathering.

This videdo is a wrap to by the US Forest Service that was presented in Dillon, Montana on the 2013 annual gathering of the tribes which took place in south western Montana in 2013. The views expressed in this video are not mine nor those of the family but provide good insight into how people perceive the annual gathering after it is over.

Enjoy!