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Volunteer for a Festival and Heal in the Wisdom - Part 2
 Philippo Lo Grande - PVNN
May 4, 2010
| | Philippo Lo Grande shares some of the experiences he's had while volunteering at Music Festivals in North America - from Kerrville, Texas to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. | |
It wasn't until many years later and the legendary 25 day Festival of the Eagle that I was compelled to return. There I witnessed an amazing true grace that the Native Americans shared with us out of their special relationship with the land. Around the Threadgill stage Mockingbirds sang in harmony to the flute playing of Mitch Walking Elk. While Johanna Shenandoah (whose forefather, George Washington, named the mountains after) circle danced in white buck skins.
Suddenly the wind joined in and picked up a teepee and tossed it into the stage, but Johanna continued on with out missing a step. Never had I experienced such soulful presence in a voice as I heard that day than in the cries of John Trudell and the eerie way it blended with the yodeling of a cowboy poet camping way back up in the Crows Nest.
Floyd Westerman, who played the Chief in Dances with Wolves, shared with me some wisdom. As we journeyed through the camps, he told me that not only is knowledge handed down, but so is duty. It's passed on to the youth in a way so that they realize the importance of practice.
We lit a fire on Chapel Hill and tended it with volunteers for the whole of that festival; I deeply believe a dramatic healing took place then that is still affecting all of us to this very day. As it points out in Bobby Bridger's song, another clue: And I know a country with vision that dreamed. All the people were equal or so it seemed, but gaining oneness with our fellow man is so useless not knowing the spirit of oneness, we share with the land.
So I "Kerrplunked" myself back into the volunteer work force with my new Kerr language skills (accent on the Kerr), and before I knew it I was spending my afternoons getting schooled in the basics of the award winning Permaculture program.
Basically what that is is being a part of a crew and for many of us relearning to design how we live that has stability and resiliency like a natural ecosystem. The three ethics are: 1. Care of the Earth; 2. Care for its people; and 3. Setting limits to population and consumption then reinvesting surplus back into the system.
So I ripped and sorted, carted and shoveled, watered and stirred, with the most loveable earthly folks I have ever worked with. On my 50th birthday, I received a real present - I was taught that it is NOT too late, that there ARE real solutions - and that they work (what you most need is already at hand). I found that by learning some simple guidelines this would provide each of us with a personal toolbox of sorts to use for our own situation.
The best vehicle to get into the back to the earth consciousness is through our food, that's why it helps every system if we are aware of where it comes from, how it's grown, served and where the scraps end up. Some of the most deliciously prepared meals I have ever eaten reminded me why volunteering was so popular here.
The daily check ins and changing the color of your bracelet allows the staff volunteers many benefits. Most all of the food is donated from places like Wholefoods, Artz Ribhouse and local farms. It's so good that just about every day someone would stand up after eating and yell "Lets hear it for the kitchen staff!" and the room would erupt into spontaneous applause.
It was easy to find a place to lend a hand, I started stacking dishes and wiping down picnic tables for seconds on watermelon. Soon I was listening to musicians' stories while helping the stage crew during sound checks, but it wasn't until the Trash Crew asked for some help that I realized that volunteering could be so fun.
This co-ed group drove and lifted, sunned and separated, delivered and danced our way around the ranch. It seemed that everyone involved was taking Rod Kennedy's idea to heart: "if everybody was first responsible for their own drinking cup then small recycling ideas will start to permeate into all areas." People wrote beautiful things on the truck like "Happiness is like perfume, it's impossible to pour it on somebody else with out getting a few drops on yourself."
Richard Wright knows people, teaching, and how to guide along a Construction Crew. Today he is showing us how to stack the empty wine bottles with quick setting cement and by inserting Christmas lights into their necks, we have created a glowing partition to guide us to the new staff showers - a very inexpensive way to keep everyone happy.
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