It’s been almost a week since I, along with my friendship fortress, returned from Firefly. If you’re dumb enough to not know, it’s a music festival. It truly was a wonderful occasion, as copious amounts of drugs, alcohol and love filled the summer air. Not the physical kind, way too grimy for that.
My tentmates and I met many awesome people, and were thus able to expand our friendship fortress throughout the weekend. As we grew in numbers, we did not falter in quality. Our completely ridiculous inside jokes did not weird out girls (for the most part) which is always cool.
This experience of altruism got my brother and I talking. Why is everyone so cool? This is a conversation we had while still there, under the influence of various aforementioned substances.
The consensus became that while we are not out in the real world competing for resources to provide for ourselves and perhaps others, we can be courteous and downright awesome to complete strangers. The analogy was made that you high five strangers and don’t think twice about lending someone at a nearby tent a needed supply yet we will all run each other over leaving the parking lot when this shindig is over.
I would like to add that this doesn’t go for those who joined the fortress, you are genuinely awesome. This refers to the countless complete strangers and passers by that you have seconds-long encounters with. Why be so nice to someone you’re never going to see again?
You could start by saying that it’s because everyone wants to be there; it’s their vacation, they paid for this experience. And that’s the most important part: it’s a shared experience and a shared sense of community that we get so little of in the real world and the closest example is the fleeting memory of college.
So how do we replicate this in the real world? We don’t. Firefly all the time. 365 days a year. And now I leave you with lasting images and videos of an experience you may have had but probably didn’t. There’s always next year, less cool people.
