Excerpts from All Ways Free Summer 1997. (Reprinted from All Ways Free,
Winter '88)

Why should anyone want to go thru the 1001 tasks that are the
life-support system of the Rainbow Gathering? Hauling large rocks for
bakery ovens, digging & filling latrines, tending medical emergencies,
installing water pipe systems that need to be taken apart,…sorting
garbage, not to mention doing all this with the added difficulty of our
own problems: upset or belligerent people, alcoholics in rainbow
clothing, rude or unhygienic behavior; and sometimes with only minimal
help or even opposition from the public service of the government.
…
Why do it? Why face all the problems, all the maps & mailings, all the
fundraising for printing; all the long-winded discussion over
procedures; why consume all this time of our lives? For what? Why
gather?
…
We are utterly capable of seeking and finding the pure natural
experience without subjecting ourselves to all this trouble. So why do
we put this on our shoulders and go on? Why do we do it? I mean: Why
gather?
Because   we love each other. We really do.
Because   we are creating something new and beautiful….
Because   we hold the vision of a peaceful world in our inner eyes - in
our hearts - and we make it real in this outside world.
Because   is a thrill to experience a cooperative society.
Because   only when we take personal responsibility for the needs of
each other - water, food, security, fuel, healing, childcare and
recycling - do we take mature responsibility for our lives.
Because   the children need something gentle and loving to look forward
to.
Because   it is important to teach and learn as much as possible about
human cooperation.
Because   we are fed up with war economy & economic exploitation &
political over lording, and we want to try something else.
Because   gathering teaches thousands of people, even tens of thousands,
respect for the earth, the water, the plants & the animals.
Because   even the addicts, the dissolute, the spaced-out space cadets,
the drunks who come are in need of love, and every society must care for
its own.
Because   laughter, music, celebration and rejoicing in life are needed
in this world in great measure.
Because   gathering unifies ancient tribal wisdom with current ideas and
technologies.
Because   we want to inspire hope that it is indeed possible - and in
fact pleasurable - for people of all kinds to live in peace.
Because   our councils are open to everyone to speak, we hear ideas,
poems, stories and wisdom from the seven corners of the earth.
Because   the work and play-shops are education's, the massage
delightful, and the music rich with interlace harmonies.
Because   light and life and love deserve to be celebrated by lots of
us.
Because   when we hold hands in our circles we can feel the energy that
moves the atoms and the moon and stars.
Because   gathering teaches us to have faith, to trust each other, to
believe in good and goodness, and to have the strength - in the face of
the rest of the world - to carry on.
Garrick Beck (1988)

Thank you Garrick!!