This was our first national Rainbow Gathering.

The Rainbow Gathering is a powerful display of sophistication and maturity deep in the woods. It has wonderful mixes and contrasts: it is both solemn and boisterous, both political and universal, both wise and naive. The organizational effort required to host, house, feed, and heal some 20,000 people is immense, but this group makes it feel like a breeze. Everybody is involved; everybody has a stake. The care and respect for the land is absolute; cleanup begins the moment the first gatherers arrive. The heartsongs and circles are a profound display of human spirit, the camps and kitchens of human ingenuity.

It is both high-tech and primitive, both brave and meek, both ravenous and fond. The economy of the gathering is a clever inversion of a typical capitalist system: each thing and each effort is given away freely. The kitchens - essentially professional restaurant kitchens built in (and largely out of) the woods - give away food to hundreds each day. Instead of starving in a competitive model, hoping against the odds that no competitor will open next door, they welcome the introduction of a nearby competing kitchen, which inevitably happens.

Nobody has a job at the gathering, but everybody works tirelessly. Nobody makes any money, but everybody profits. Nobody is bored or even has a minute to spare, but everyone is restful, peaceful, and contemplative. It is truly something to behold, and a model for information-age economic experimentation.