Will There Ever Be Hippies Again

Source: Cultural-Encyclopedia-Expanded/dp/1580085474/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1478938001&sr=eight-1&keywords=hippie+dictionary

(Musings to my grandchildren)

I'1000 a new grandparent, so all I could wonder about earlier, during, and now after the election, is what my grandchildren's future will wait similar. The nurturing part of me wants to protect them from all evil, wrongdoing, and unsavory individuals. I desire them to grow upwards in a peaceful world where all men and women are created equal, where music brings us together, and where anybody has a risk to cocky-concretize. This may exist idealistic, but that's the way I feel. My dreams for my grandkids are as lofty as they were for the iii beautiful children I brought into the earth.

I was born in the 1950s and raised in New York in the midst of the hippie generation. I hung out in caput shops in the suburbs of New York City, wore beaded necklaces, walked barefoot in the park, burned incense, and listened to music nether black lights. Because I had asthma, I never got into smoking marijuana, but I did protest the state of war and say skillful-bye to friends who went to fight in Vietnam. I fought for numerous causes and wore cut-off jeans that swept the dirty streets. And, I illegally wore the American flag slung like a scarf effectually my shoulders. Equally a writer, I filled my periodical with musings most the Utopian world of my dreams.

The hippie generation was, in essence, an emotional rebellion against the mindless direction in which our world was headed. The '60s counterculture asked questions and begged for answers and/or peace. At that place take been predictions that this intellectual rebellion will soon return because of political and racial oppression, and my sense is that it might emerge sooner than nosotros call back. In fact, the riots that bankrupt out in major cities earlier this week following the election might signal the get-go of a badly needed revolution. Possibly we too demand a resurfacing of counterculture music, sexual activity, and verbiage.

Today, while speaking on the telephone to a friend who shared the spirit of my upbringing in the 1960s, I felt the same stirrings in my blood—the same desire to join together and instill modify, the pull to help bring a sense of peace to unsettling times. I felt the same coercion to appoint in some type of activism that I felt dorsum then. What I see and feel now are all reminders of the many similarities our current state of affairs has to the hippie generation, which was a time of excess—racial violence, war, corporate greed, and a buildup of intolerance and dissatisfaction. Drugs were widely used and then, of course, so the contempo legalization of marijuana in many states is indicative of some other parallel with the hippie generation. And, social media has encouraged people to speak up and voice their concerns—political and personal—which tin easily lead to a revolution.

While I, and many others with a spiritual orientation, advocate self-care through meditation, yoga, and writing for healing, there are many who are self-destructing. Among teens, the suicide rate is higher than ever, and more veterans are dying from suicide than in gainsay. Racism and bigotry are becoming more widespread.

I want to exist the messenger to my kids and grandchildren and inspire them to keep the faith, be compassionate, and promote the ability of interconnectedness. As we used to say in the 1960s, "Make honey not state of war." This is not merely a slogan; it's vital to our commonage well-existence. The resurgence of the hippie revolution merely means that nosotros demand to reevaluate one-time thoughts and bring in fresh and poignant new ideas. It might be a good time to revisit books such every bit The Hippie Dictionary by John Bassett McClearly (2002), which is really a history book that casts a beautiful picture of those times. The author highlights some words in the volume's introduction, which I think still apply today, such every bit: Hang in there, and keep on trucking. Nigh of import, permit's keep in mind some of the words in that dictionary and the core of what this country was built upon: "A democracy is a society or form of regime in which the population is given the opportunity to contribute to the decisions that govern them" (p. 126).

We are still that . . . and hopefully always volition be.

Like me, McCleary also believes in making i's opinions known through writing. On the last folio of his volume, he wrote these words at the meridian of the page followed by some blank lines:

"This is a infinite where all yous concerned citizens can write down all the things that you think our regime and business leaders are doing wrong and what should be done about information technology. You tin can besides E-mail all of this to me and, to a higher place all, to your elected officials.".

Amen.
Amen.

As the wonderful singer/songwriter Pete Seeger said, "We shall overcome." I am hopeful that will do only that . . . for our children, our grandchildren, and ourselves.

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Source: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-empowerment-diary/201611/will-there-be-resurgence-the-hippie-generation