GBB Fest IX

by Jon Sullivan - 2025-08-23 - Stories

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Garcia Birthday Band just finished up their annual music festival. I was there.

I first attended this festival 2 years ago. And it had an impact on me that was so profound I have trouble understanding it, even though it's a weekend I've thought about many times since. I showed up as crazy Jon. Still not in control of my thoughts and emotions. Still worried about the mild hallucinations happening constantly. Still filled with manic energy and irrational endless joy. Then a few days later all of the crazy ended. As if there was one last lesson the universe needed to teach me, and with that done I was ready to walk the new path on my own.

Sometimes I miss the crazy. It was great fun. Swimming in a new understanding of myself and life and everything. And the endless weepy joy. All the lessons - You are not your mistakes and shame, and you can leave it behind completely - Love is real and free and powerful - Look for ways to be kind to everyone - Judge yourself fairly rather than savagely. Five years of lessons, with the final one happening at Fest - The realization that I had been living my life wrong for decades. The realization that most of the anger and sadness inside me were based on lies I'd told myself since I was a teenager. And then the final break. Old Jon was done. New Jon had started.

Because of GBB Fest, Jon is now a person of virtue and love and kindness and light. A few years ago I would have considered that mindset naive, hypocritical, fanatical, cultish. Stoner nonsense. Woo woo delusions. Now I lean into it. Because I was wrong to have ever doubted it's veracity. Peace, light, love, joy is real.

So GBB Fest IX was a weekend of palliative care for those suffering from too much American dream. For three days we were all actually equal. All knew love is love. All standing in support of the least of us. A community of virtue.

It may all be a delusion. We may all be stoned. It may be a leaderless cult. But as civilization descends into darkness, as AI kills us one by one, as viewer retention replaces journalism, as victim blaming replaces humanity, as we deport the workforce and tear families apart, as we demonize truth and expertise, as the rule of law devolves into might makes right, as healthcare becomes a privilege...... We gather, all for one and one for all.

We don't know what the US will look like in a few years. But I do know I'll be gathering with people who love me and respect my freedom and will help me in need rather than look away. They for me, as I for them. I will hold them when they cry and feed them when they hunger. And that is Fest, but with great music and a beautiful camp spot.

2025 Jon is a person of virtue. Lead with kindness. Foster community. Find happiness in gratitude. Make equality inseparable from justice. Have the courage to engage. Help those you can. Hug like you mean it.

"I was hungry and you gave me food.
I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink.
I was a stranger and you welcomed me.
I was sick and you looked after me.
I was in prison and you came to visit me."
- Jesus

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