“Do not conform to this world…”

As per class requirement, I took the opportunity to sit and observe people for 20 minutes. Since I saw plenty of people this Labor Day weekend, I found this assignment to be no difficulty, except for the fact that I have to work off solely memory since neither a laptop nor a pen and paper were at hand when I did this. Regardless, impressions were left on my head and I shall write them down…

 

In Worthing, South Dakota, this labor day weekend, there was a Christian music festival known as LifeLight. During this weekend, Christian bands would play music for free all while overpriced food and merchandise was being sold in shaded areas. The free music, of course, attracted many people looking to see a show. With multiple bands playing at multiple stages, many people were walking back and forth between stages to see different bands as well as purchase consumables from various vendors. I sat at the center point of this location in order to look at all the people that had crossed paths.

Objective: Needless to say, the place was crowded. Numerous people of various subcultures walked across the plane to see generally positive, encouraging, and occasionally headbanging music. Occasionally, there were groups of people walking with “free hugs” signs. Some people traveled in groups of friends, in such case they were generally dressed alike (possibly to more easily find each other). Others traveled as families (though not as often), in which case the similarities usually were determined by genetics as opposed to fashion sense. Nonetheless, as humankind is often referred to as a social animal, it can be expected that people would travel together in groups of people that share similarities of some kind.

Subjective: Because we hate different things. Just kidding. Not all of us do. But this festival was a good way for one to see how us humans long to belong. Not only by the patterns of conglomeration that people tended to, but also the fact that people came for music and speakers that told everyone that there is Someone out there who loves you for you. That’s simply how humanity is, whether you believe in God or not, it is obvious that

  1. Humanity is far from perfect
  2. We all need a place to belong to

Sometimes, people search for that through something as simple as a hug. I couldn’t help but feel that a lot of the people with “free hugs” signs weren’t just there to give affection as much as they wanted to receive it, even if it was from a random stranger. Personally, I thought it was just a way to get attention, but this idea soon dawned on me when I contemplated the reason why so many people were here.

And that’s a blip of the experience I had at LifeLight. Feel free to ask any questions about it.