Tips for Arriving at the Gathering

 

Are you a first time gatherer or someone coming to the annual gathering for the first time?

First off, make sure you have snacks and 2 gallons of water per person in the car before you pass the last town. (You will need the snacks and one gallon of water for your first day. The other gallon and snacks, you will leave in the vehicle for when you hike out on your last day or for extra trips to the car).

When approaching the Gathering site, remember that you're coming as friends in somebody else's back yard. Treat the local folks with the courtesy, respect and concern that they deserve as members of the Family of Humankind. Be Loving and Kind. Don't be rude, steal, trash the town, disturb the Peace, or try to "shock" people. Be mindful of others' sensitivities. Remember the original Golden Rule when dealing with BOTH Babylon AND Rainbow: Treat Others the Way you want to be treated! Please, make your journey a safe one. Don't be under the influence while driving. 

Did you read Avoiding Mandatory Court Appearance Tickets?  

If you stop in the local towns for supplies, please treat the local community with all the respect due them, no matter how they may behave. When you spend money, introduce yourself and say you are here for the gathering.  Make sure the local town's folks know we help local economies. 

If you see family panhandling or loitering, help them get into the gathering. We are our siblings keepers.  We want our impact in the local towns to be positive. Food and basic medical care is available for all people at the gathering, so there is no need to panhandle the locals.

Keep in mind, that it can take you 3-6 hours to hike your gear from where you park your car to the spot you want to camp -- and that's if you know where you are going. It may be hot or rainy and muddy! Trust me on this. Plus you will be making friends along the way, talking to people, etc.

If this is your first gathering, you probably don't know where you want to camp and so you will need time to explore and find a place where you connect with your neighbors.  Check in with INFO for a map of the gathering and recommendations. On the trail, ask people to point you to INFO.

Again, the aforementioned water and snacks will come in very handy while you're trying to find a spot for your tent, learning where to get food and water, and finding those neighbors that will become your lifelong friends.

If you plan on driving, make sure your car and driver is 100% legal-all lights work, valid insurance and registration, seat belts, car seats for children. Our government assumes that we are criminals. Please try to arrive during daylight hours as the roads into gathering sites can be tricky and we want you to arrive home safely. If you can make space in your vehicle for a rider or you need a ride, ride share is happening at your local craistlist.org or on Facebook. Please note there are multiple places on the internet where ride share can take place. Explore on your own but make sure to read the following recommendations.

When you are within 30 miles of the gathering, drive like you are taking a driving test, and go a few MPH under the speed limit. Make sure to read Avoiding Mandatory Court Appearance Tickets.

*Always* say no to requests from law enforcement to search your vehicle or your person, no matter what they tell you. It is not illegal for cops to lie to you, and they often will do so to get your consent to search. "You might as well give us permission, because if you do not, we will go get a warrant and you will be here for hours." This is a bluff. Don't fall for it. Their time is much more valuable than yours.

Weed is not legal in any national forest!

If they insist on searching over your objections, don't prevent them physically in anyway - but continue to repeat "I do not consent." Ask for names and badge numbers, write down time, place, and what happened in detail. Every little thing matters in a court of law, even the things that don't mean much to you or me. If you can, take pictures, videos, and/or audio recordings.

Also, if they ask you if you have contraband, and tell you that if you have just a little bit and give it to them that they will not search you, tell them no. Never, never, never incriminate yourself. That means don't consent to anything, don't give them anything but your license, registration, and proof of insurance, don't admit to anything.

The gathering will be in a national forest and as such federal laws and regulations will be enforced. Don't matter what the state laws are, once you're on federal property, FEDERAL LAWS APPLY. WEED IS NOT LEGAL ON FEDERAL LAND.

If you will be sharing a ride, please meet the folks you'll be riding with at a local coffee shop, make sure you feel comfortable traveling a long distance with them, and establish the ground rules. If you are coming via bus, plane or train, try to connect up with a ride from your destination before you get there. If you are planning on hitchhiking, please travel with a buddy, only bum rides during the day and if you get a bad feeling from a ride, PLEASE don't take it. There will always be another one.

I strongly recommend you plan on arriving home in the morning - the earlier the better. If you are coming home and it's late, my best recommendation is you kick it at a campground, roadside rest area, or motel as you desire. Then get up at dawn and come on home.  The roads into the gathering can be challenging, the signage can disappear, and you will be tired. 

Keep in mind that your journey really begins once you park your car. From there you'll have to hike into the gathering with your gear and try to find a place that meets your needs -- very hard to do after dark.  It can easily take 3-6 hours from the time you park your car until you have your tent set up. Doing it in the daytime is fun, doing it at night when you are exhausted is not my idea of a good time.

Once you pitch your tent, know where it is! Make sure you know what larger camp you are near, mark your space with something as many people will have the same cheap tent from the big box stores.  Don't be the person wandering around at 2 AM trying to find your camp.

NEVER LEAVE YOUR CAMP WITHOUT WATER, A SNACK, A FLASHLIGHT AND A JACKET. You may think you will be gone for 15 minutes, but the reality is things will happen and you may not make it back to your tent for 5 hours.

Let's all get home safely.

DRIVE SAFELY!
Ignore all rumors of cancellation or organization!
Live Lightly with the Land and People!

Rap 110100100 - Tech in the Woods

Tech Etiquette in the Woods

The gathering is an opportunity to employ and enjoy primitive tech. Please keep radios, phones, drones, wifi zones, etc. on the down low, or in private spaces or distant places. 

Please ask for consent before recording sound or images, whether or not posting online. Parents must consent to photos of minors. 

In the US and Canada, you have the right to record law enforcement in public spaces without consent, as long as you aren’t interfering. Please blur bystanders in final images.

Appropriate technology such as solar panels, water filters, pumps, batteries, communication gear, and LEDs for stages and/or shows make our gatherings more sustainable, safe, and enjoyable, but please carefully consider their placement.  Please dispose of batteries properly (pack it in, pack it out) and/or reuse rechargeables. 

There is longstanding community agreement to not use chain saws or other internal combustion engines in the woods once the gathering begins, barring emergencies. 

Flashlights can be helpful at night, but please direct downward, and avoid pointing the beam in others’ eyes (aka “hippie mace.")  Using a red light can help preserve night vision. 

Embrace being Home, unplugging from everyday technology and plugging into the rainbow.  Have fun, enjoy the beauty and family around you & the living here and now. 

Ticks, ticks, ticks

Yes there will be ticks at this year's gathering!

Please prepare to protect yourself.   Please find some basic information here. But you know how to find more information on preventing tick born illnesses.

Remember, do tick checks often.   Find more information at PA.gov Tick Information.

 

 

 

 

Shanti Sena: The Basics (Guest Post)

 

Today's guest post came from Butterfly Bill's website. It was not attributed to anyone in particular, but I did not write this. Unfortunately Butterfly Bill is no longer with us, but his website lives on with lots of great gathering information. To check it out, visit Butterfly Bill’s Rainbow Gathering Site Bliss-Fire.com

 Shanti Sena: the Basics

“We are all Shanti Sena.” We’ve all heard that phrase. But what, exactly, does it mean?

It means that, just as we have no leaders because we are all equal participants in participatory democracy when we are gathered together, we also have no cops because we are all equally responsible for community safety, peace, and harmony.

So that’s it. Pure and simple.

A perfect example was the search for the lost child this last summer. No one had to be begged to look for her. They just went out and did it. That’s Shanti Sena.

Yes, people with radios were a huge help. Yes, the folks who knew how to organize a grid search were a huge help. Yes, the many boots on the ground were a huge help. The communicators, the organizers, and the searchers all worked together. Sometimes people served in all three capacities. Some folks just did one or two of those functions. No one was in charge of everything, but some of the folks who had expertise or tools helped provide direction.

After the fact, we learned that some of our systems and methods for searching for lost kids could use some improvement. Those of us who had been focusing on gathering safety for many years shared ideas about how we might do it differently next time. I have no doubt some of those ideas will be planted like seeds, take root, and grow to become part of our existing systems for emergency response.

So yes, in addition to the good hearts of loving people who show up when the “Shanti Sena” or “Lost Child” call goes out, there are also established systems and methods for doing Shanti Sena work. Yes, there are people with skills and experience who know each other, who share those skills and experience, and who are eager to teach them to anyone who wants to learn.

We don’t have rules. We don’t have policies and procedures manuals. What we have are people who share their gifts, work together, and learn from each other. What we have are people with loving hearts who are committed to peace.

Those of us who have been doing Shanti Sena for decades do not see ourselves as cops, or security, or bouncers. We see ourselves as Peacekeepers. And a true Peacekeeper embraces non-violence as both an ethical and a tactical path. If you use violence while doing Shanti Sena, you are doing it wrong.

So these are the basics of Shanti Sena. It’s simple: people working together for community safety.

How deeply any one person wants to become involved in Shanti Sena work is entirely up to that person. Some people make it the primary focus of their gathering, and respond anywhere they are needed. Some people are always available to step up when they have something specific to offer. Some people really don’t want to deal with it at all, or aren’t good with people, and prefer to chop vegetables. Every choice is valid.

If you’re interested in conflict resolution, crisis intervention, and/or harm reduction, Shanti Sena is the work for you. If you enjoy “culture crafting” – hanging out with people very different than you and building relationships with them – Shanti Sena is the work for you. But how to start?

There is no one right way to do Shanti Sena. Develop skills and your own style, and play with it. But there are some bottom line, common sense starting points if you do want to go further than looking for lost kids:

    Safety first, last, and always
    Everyone has strengths in working with people. Find your own strengths and use them.
    Everyone has skills in working with people. Notice others’ skills and learn from them.
    Work using the buddy system.
    Ask for help when it is needed.
    If a situation is tense, make sure you de-escalate yourself first before trying to intervene with others. Your goal is to de-escalate the situation so people can work things through calmly; the last thing you want is to become part of the problem. (This also means attending to self-care. Remember to eat, rest, and play.)
    If you can’t remain impartial, step aside.
    If you aren’t helping, get out of the way.
    If you seriously don’t like people who are drunk, having emotional difficulties, or being obnoxious, you are probably not the right person to intervene with these people.
    Go to as many Shanti Sena workshops as you can.
    Shadow someone who does a lot of Shanti Sena work. (This might mean hanging around and drinking a lot of coffee with a lot of very cool people you have never met before.)
    Skills matter, but the most important tool you have is yourself and your loving heart.

My Brain on Nature

 

When I get into the woods, my brain changes. The way my brain works changes.  The way I interact with other life on this planet changes.  Being in the rhythm of the woods is a magical part of the gathering. Everyone changes in the woods.

I connect with human beings under the canopy of Douglas Fir and cedar trees. My brain slowly returns to rhythms marked by sunrise and sunset, rain and sun. It is a helpless feeling at first because I am so used to the endless push to analyze texts, fix computer problems, and tame databases.  The pace is relentless not just in what I am doing but in the already identified list of things to be done.

Walking on forest duff, I deal with that which is in front of me. I slide into non-logical ways of knowing and stop thinking in words. Under the panorama of stars, I awaken all my ways of understanding. As Glen Slater writes in his article “Cyborgian Drift,” ,“the privileging of the intellect over other aspects of being—animal sensation, instinct, aesthetic response, intuition” is a form of “Blinkered vision”  (180).

Remove your blinkers family!

Turning off the computers, the phones, completely unplugging and focusing all my attention on the beautiful smiles in my presence, the tiny wildflowers in the meadow, the sound of the drums at night rolling out across the hills helps me reconnect with deep love, with the energy that is around me now and I am present in a way that I am not present all the time.

At the gathering I deal with specifics and tangible issues.  Chop wood, haul water, cook food, dig shitters, hold the hands and hearts of my family and place my heart in their hands.  My brain away from computers and electronics changes, slows down, feels the love that it all around me.

I know quitting addictions is hard. The first few days you may feel disoriented, lost, unable to function but give it a week and feel the calm in your heart, the clarity in your mind.  Feel the love that is all around you. If you can't quit, keep your addiction to yourself. Please respect that many people who gather, do so to get away from electronics and the state of mind that goes along with them.

Some of you may disagree, may argue that your brain on computers is who you are and you would be no different away from the gadgets.  There's only one way to find out.  Take a break. See what happens when you love and work at a human speed, not a computer's speed.  Hear the wind in the trees, see the butterflies in the sky, share a story with the person next to you  (especially if you don't know them) instead of the one on the other end of a gadget.  Find out who you are when nature is speaking through you.

Gaia doesn't text.  The creek isn't on Facebook.  The tree's aren't on social media. Take a week or two out of your life to experience this other world and find out who you are On Nature.

Turtle Guide (or what should I bring to a gathering)

 

What is Peace?

A common point of discussion when working towards peace is defining what peace is and isn't, what it looks like, which activities are considered "peaceful" and which are not.

I think at the extreme ends of the spectrum, most people can agree on what peace is and isn't. For example, most people would consider dropping bombs on other people to be the opposite of peace. Most people would consider the silent prayer/meditation for world peace and the om to be examples of peace.

That's the easy stuff. In fact trying to define peace can cause even the most peaceful among us to be less than peaceful.  So what do we do if we say we want peace, but we can't even agree on what peace looks like, feels like, acts like or talks like?

I'll throw out a couple of high level ideas, but even these are subject to much discussion. I hope you continue these discussions in the circles in which you find yourself.   

What is Peace?

 
First graders have a very good concept of peace (image from Miss Krug's Our Grade One blog):

 
Some people view peace as the absence of war or violence. Perhaps this view comes to us from  Ancient Greece in the goddess Eirene the goddess of peace, who also celebrates decisive battles that end wars. If we subscribe to this paradigm, we probably are following the axiom "the ends justify the means."

Another high level view of peace is one that focuses on harmony and tranquility that can take the form of an inner state or a state between people. We can say she is always tranquil and peaceful or they have a harmonious marriage.

Peace can be considered as cooperation between people in a social group or culture to maintain a certain level of social order. Keep in mind that slavery existed in the USA during times of peace and for me, slavery does not equal peace.

Liberian Women for Peace

The Global Peace Index (GPI) attempts to identify countries by their level of peacefulness focusing on various formal military measures, prisoners per capita, refugees, wars, etc. 

In the last hundred years, peace has been tightly coupled with the idea of non-violence. So now we have to define what non-violence is and how non-violent  methods contribute towards creating peace.

I'm sure most of you are familiar with the teaching of the Dalai Lama, Mahatma Gandhi, and Martin Luther King Jr. -- all of which emphasis non-violence --another problematic concepts. Defining non-violence is just as hard as defining peace (but I think by now you know how to approach this issue.)

The Dalai Lama offers these words, "Peace can only last where human rights are respected, where the people are fed, and where individuals and nations are free." Of course now we have to figure out what "free" really means. For example, do we include the freedom to harm others in the word free? Or are your freedoms curtailed when they impact my freedoms? How does your pollution impact my freedom?

Peace is often negotiated between groups of people. For example, a family, school, city or state negotiate what they see as peace.

International Alerts writes, "Peace is when people are able to resolve their conflicts without violence."  

If the absence of violence is our definition of peace, we end up with enforced peace. Sometimes peace is enforced by governments and when the force disappears so does the peace. I would argue that this is not a true peace. Perhaps it is a moment when true peace can take hold or perhaps it is just a halt to the fighting for a short period of time.

Working towards peace is nothing new. In 1915, the Women's Peace Party traveled to Europe on the Peace Ship to try to negotiate peace during World War I. We all know how that turned out.

Even clowns get into the mix with World Peace Clowns. Check out the link to Patch Adams - an early gatherer.

Am I always a peaceful person?  That's a good question. I try to be, but then again, what seems peaceful to me, may not be peaceful to another person. How then to resolve all these paradigms of peace?

One method we use at the Rainbow Gathering during a conflict is to sit in a circle and give everyone an opportunity to share their thoughts and feelings, recommend solutions, discuss options and try to find a win-win solution. 

Another tool I love to use is sitting down and oming, chanting, or being silent so we create space for peace to take root.

Another method that works well both within the gathering and outside the gathering is the idea of zoning.  Some camps like to be up late at night making lots of noise. Other camps prefer the early to bed, early to rise model. When these two camps are next to each other conflict arises which then removes peace. Neither camp is right or wrong. The issue is that they just are not compatible in close proximity. Zoning is what this is called in the big city.

 The Answer to the Question: What is Peace?

The short answer is I do not have one answer.

The long answer is that I hope I've gotten you thinking about your own actions and peace as well as the community around you and peace.

I believe in peace as something we "practice" much like meditation and yoga rather than something we "get" such as a new pair of shoes. The more people practice peace, the strong the peace becomes. The more experience we have with the practice of peace, the better we become at creating peace. 

The muse of peace invites you to come to the gathering and practice your peace with this crazy family I so dearly love. This family will test your patience, change the way you look at the world and yourself, teach you new things, and provide a wonderful opportunity to "practice peace" with others. I hope to see you at the 4th of July Silent Prayer/Meditation for World Peace in Main Meadow practicing your peace.

"The most valuable possession you can own is an open heart. The most powerful weapon you can be is an instrument of peace." ~~~~ Carlos Santana