“All their life was spent not in laws, statutes, or rules, but according to their own free will and pleasure. They rose out of their beds when they thought good; they did eat, drink, labour, sleep, when they had a mind to it and were disposed for it. None did awake them, none did offer to constrain them to eat, drink, nor do any other thing; for so had Gargantua established it. In all their rule and strictest tie of their order there was but this one clause to be observed, Do What Thou Wilt; because men that are free, well-born, well-bred, and conversant in honest companies, have naturally an instinct and spur that prompteth them unto virtuous actions, and withdraws them from vice, which is called honour. Those same men, when by base subjection and constraint they are brought under and kept down, turn aside from that noble disposition by which they formerly were inclined to virtue, to shake off and break that bond of servitude wherein they are so tyrannously enslaved; for it is agreeable with the nature of man to long after things forbidden and to desire what is denied us.”
-Francois Rabelais, Gargantua and Pantagruel (16th C)

That is a quote from Charlie’s original East Jesus website which you can find here ( http://chasterus.com/ej_old.html ) Not an original concept but well worded and used as an argument to whether man is by nature ‘good’ or ‘evil’
But how to apply this to our everyday life of surviving? Because isn’t that what every day boils right down to when your eyes close? Made it through another one! And maybe you add a clarifier like ‘nobody killed me and I didn’t kill anybody’ but it’s still about base survival. And if you have something to look forward to tomorrow or not, it’s still a success every day, every month, every year that carves it’s notch into your life. Because I promise you that if you die today, there’s something happening tomorrow that you’re going to miss.
That brings us to our “End of the World, at the Edge of World, after the End of the World party” where nobody had to resort to eating expired Twinkies and a bunch of good men and women arose when the sun came up on another day and created functional, fantastical and fattening things from collected efforts.
The prestigious Prescott Posse circled their wagons on the back forty and proceeded to wrangle any stray iron that caught their fancy while roaming. Leslie and Bob, who were celebrating their anniversary, contributed a beautiful tree that was ripe for bottles. The spry little grand mother climbed onto the giant’s shoulders to capture some stray sunlight in glass. Then spent some time educating us to the difference between welding styles with Royce while they erected whimsical pieces to the front gate. Anita, Scott and Amber took the Treguboff brothers off into the desert to find discarded art while Ken and Greg took apart the generator for an overhaul and preventive measure. The kitchen turned up the flames and kept every breakfast plate full, coffee cup full and the beer cold. I’m sure that I’m missing people and things but it’s a big desert. We finished the weekend with a toast of Chocolate Martini s and a big thanks to Charlie for helping us survive.
We overlapped the party into Christmas for the EJ family with more fried goods from Ken and Sue’s deep fryer than is good for you. Marty sent a ham to smoke heaven and returned it to the buffet table in time to send most of us into a food coma. No milk for Santa as the cats are lactose intolerant and no bourbon as we have enough alcoholics trying to get into the stash but we did leave out a pit of coals in case he needed to resupply or had the power to turn them into diamonds.
A day of wind and then another of blowing and sweeping everything back out to get ready for the new year. Bob, our resident woodstocker, dragged in supplies for the burn and our firepit. While others stepped into the most important tasks of day to day life; Drew and Rhombie cleaned solar panels, Mopar used wizardly skills to keep the bathrooms clean and James, who actually likes washing dishes, establishing his continued residency.
Flip came off tour and brought back JessyLou to retrieve her pinhole cameras. Ben was biking across the country and after a tour of the place decided to take our offer of hospitality and camped and worked along side of us for the week.
That brings me to the points that made me most proud this New Year’s Eve. That so many of Charlie’s friends, who had not been here since he died, returned and remarked about what a good job we have been doing. And that we have continued to bring so many different people together over such a simple concept as turning trash into art.
The actual party was indicative of our motto and there was a giant bonfire with a few gas can offerings and several different musicians taking the stage at times through the night. Copious amounts of good cheer was swallowed with barbequed offerings and washed down with various, spiritual drinks. People came and left, dogs howled and Earl, our newest prop, was attired and greeted all who sat by the fire.
So we ended the year in style and now we are off to starting the new one in the same way. This weekend we will light another candle for our friend because he lives on in our memory and we can see all around us the results of his dream. You are invited to visit and help us ‘Make Good Thing’.
Thought I would finish with this tidbit of information I picked up from Wikipedia while researching Rabelais. “Epistemon, decapitated in the fray, recovers when Panurge sews his head back to his body. He reports that souls in hell are poorly paid and work bad jobs, but that’s the extent of their torments.”