1. Annual Family Reunion - bring myself up to date on old/new
    brother's and sister's lives and heartsongs. Meet rest of family.
    ( Note:  Like any Family Reunion, some unwanted branch or limb of
     the tree will show up and make a scene. So what.  It happens in
    the best of Families. Make the best of it or at least, don't let it
     ruin your visit.) Struggle onward, remain amused! (Tom Robbins)
    How are Jerry's Kids doing? What are they doing?
2. Spiritual Renewal - shed the hard shell i'm required to wear in
    Babylon and get back to what is real.  Eat, sleep, keep warm,
    share a dream, play a game, dig a shitter, wash hands, brief
    communal living experience.  Reject Stuff.
    Throughout the year, I become increasingly judgemental.  At the
    gathering I don't have to decide anything, or have an opinion or
    risk grave consequences for faulty judgement. I don't have to
    know my role, I can forget my lines; I can just be.
3. Assert Freedom of Assembly.  Govt sole role is to protect the
    right to free assembly.  Neither the govt, the constitution nor the
    Bill of Rights has the power to grant, regulate or administer this
    Freedom. It belonged to the people before govt existed. It still
    does! Use it or lose it. Your choice. If we hadn't gone to Texas, we
    might not be going to Ark/Mo.
4. Search for Understanding.
  a. How do two or more seemingly contradictory "Visions" get
     synthesized into one.?
  b. Consensus Dynamics - a consensus exists until we change our
     minds/hearts.  Is this any way to run a society? yes!
  c. Precedents-"We've always done it this way" doesn't seem an
     appropriate stance for a loosely knit(wired) non-group that
     hasn't really been around all that long. How do you undo a
     precedent? How do you do?
5. Council - the subtle interplay between sincere true-believers,
    the delightfully naive, the parliamentarians, the ante-bellum
    hippies, and the incurably ignorant has all the virtue of Living
    Talk Radio without the vice of Babylonian commercials and it, for
     the most part, works.  It provides general direction.
6. Drum Circle - nothing evokes my genetic memory of ancient
    times more than the sound of the drums and other musical
    instruments around an evening campfire. Warm nights make for
    the best drumming... Texas was one of the smallest nationals I
    attended but the drumming was the best I felt/heard. at any
    gathering.  Of course the whole emotional content of the Easy
    Rider Texas Gathering played a big part in the quality and
    intensity of the drumming.  One more thing to thank No Guns for.
7. Workshops - glorify the arcane.  Learn how to get by with
    minimum involvement of Babylon. Cure your ignorance -
    everyone's ignorant about something.  Leave the Gathering with a
    new facet to yourself.  Give a workshop - share your experience.
8.  New sights and sounds are the drugs of choice for a novelty
    junkie. Upon leaving the Vermont Gathering I witnessed a huge
    circle of the family in the main meadow singing Amazing Grace.
    And I met a witch from Scotland. At the PA Gathering I met a
   woman whose leg - shortened as the result of a serious car
    accident-returned to its normal length after a series of Crystal
    Healing sessions  and I saw foxfire for the first time. In North
    Carolina, I met an Elf Clan member who will be the next Pope. In
    Texas I ate a mushroom and my lips floated away from my face.
    On the downside, I met Mr. Girardia in North Carolina and
    brought a deer tick and Lyme Disease home from Kentucky. It has
    been said that you can't really enjoy life and believe in the
    germ theory of disease.
9. Plunker's ongoing "Hipstory Of The Rainbow Family" has been
    well-worth the price of admission.

10, There is something at the Gathering to offend everyone. The
     latest rumors about Stephen Principal, the Family's Legal Icon,
     are always something worth hearing.  The annual flag burning
    ceremony as promoted by pyreman will continue to hold top spot
    as the most meaningless gesture at the Gathering.  If an
     inflamatory statement needs to be made, it probably needs to be
    made in a venue where trees are not the main witnesses (perhaps
    outside an American Legion or VFW hall in middle america). One
    year they ran out of flags and the disciples had to scurry from
    site to site to find more flags.  Frankly, the children's parade is a
    lot more fun, creates general good-will and it doesn't reek of
    ancient venom.  However, there is room enough in the family for
    the celebration of individual independence to take many forms.