In a recent interview of my band, we were asked why we stay involved in punk and DIY culture. At 27, with well over a decade of being involved, it’s a question I’ve actually seldom been asked. It’s a metaphysical response, but the simplest answer for me remains that it’s a different way of being in this world — a way of being I just find healthier and more enlightening than the alternatives. That’s not meant to say I feel like I’m settling for the ripest among the rotten. In fact, DIY has never felt like a compromise to me, because I’ve seen time and again how DIY culture and values have helped people get back in the drivers seats of their own lives.

When I was very young, I immersed myself in DIY culture as a response to and a refuge from a world I considered backwards in its orthodoxy of war, inequity, racism, sexism, and homophobia. In my salad days, the counter–culture became both a tribe and a filter through which I could better understand and combat those realities, and eventually discover important joys of life, as well. Early on, I felt choices had to be made about which parts of that orthodoxy I could help dismantle; which parts of reality I could help change for the benefit of all. Not surprisingly, I was soon surrounded by other young people who felt the same calling, the same compassion. We weren’t always certain how to best act on that compassion, and sometimes failed to even show it for one another, but it was a bond that united us across borders with a vast movement of which, at first, we knew only our own small corner. I’m still fortunate to be surrounded by many compassionate, conscientious people in my life and have now crossed some of those borders and met many more. The difference is most of us don’t call ourselves young anymore.

Despite the commotion around it, there is for many of us a peace and clarity that flows from DIY culture — from choosing early on to dispense with so many of the illusions and insecurities that consumer culture hoists on us. Dumping that baggage is a longer process of emancipation than most of us realize when we first begin. But eventually, it’s the lightening of that load which can help us continue to make space — mentally, politically, and physically — for immense bursts of creativity, euphoria, and enlightenment in our lives, even as adults after long days on the job.

Enlightenment is a loaded word to most of us — used more often by new age types than DIY punk rockers. But the appeal for and etymology of enlightenment are surprisingly relevant to the language and rituals of our subculture, when you consider the endless number of punk and hardcore songs that call on their audience to wake up, awaken, open your eyes, rise up, don’t be blind, and so on. I bet you can name twenty songs like that off the top of your head.

The word enlightenment actually dates back to 1382 from the Old English word inlihtan, meaning “to remove the dimness or blindness (usually figurative) from one's eyes or heart.” And what are so many of these screams about in the end, if not that?

Gautama Buddha is believed to have said enlightenment is the end of suffering. For all its shortcomings, I feel lucky to still be part of a subculture where so many people are personally or collectively trying to get their shit together in order to do just that — end suffering. For some, it’s on a more global scale. For others, it’s doing their part to bring that feeling home for at least a few short hours at a great show. In both contexts, I’m glad there seems to be more of us now than ever before who plan to stick around and pull our weight in that effort.