One of the most common responses to the thought of wide spread Anarchy by those who've made it past the anarchy=chaos misconception is that of the lowly trashman. "But who'd take out the trash" if we were all free to do what we wanted, who on earth would choose to be the trashman or the sewer worker, you know.. the shit jobs. I've heard this arguement often and I finally have an answer. .... I would.
I have met many Rainbows over the years volunteering with one disaster or another; some standing up for your rights on a street corner but I had never made it to a Gathering "on time". 2008 saw a valiant attempt to make it to Wyoming but our side trip to the Pine Ridge Reservation left the bus sabotaged and we spent the week of the Gathering waiting for a part we didn't even need. So this year I found a random ride home, on Facebook.
Going in I envisioned prolonged down time and hanging out with people I knew but that's not how it played out. Turns out my friends seem to be the ones that ... do the work.. and we "hung out" mostly in passing as we went about our "work" daze.
Instead of camping with pregathering friends I decided to stick with the 3 random strangers I'd shared a van with for the 5 day journey that we all thought was to be 3. There were no mechanical problems; we just stopped every hour or 2 and the van was too cramped for comfortable napping. It was a bit frustrating for me to take 5 days to drive a distance I've done alone in 2 &1/2 but it was the 1st time I ever road tripped somewhere and did not drive so that was way different and certainly a bonding experience. ;~)
