Have you noticed?
People seem to be in a big hurry, moving faster by the day. It doesn’t matter if they are going somewhere in their car, are calling to set up an appointment, or have just met someone they think could be the love of their life. There is an intense push to get on with it, to achieve the goal, to demand life instantly obey. All that movement, that agitation, is enough to set the world on fire, or at least the more susceptible parts.
As within; so without.
Can you feel it: the stress, the striving, the unwinnable fight with life. It is immensely tiring to be one-pointedly focused on making the deal, on beating the odds, on narrowing the gap between today and tomorrow, on arriving before you’ve even departed.
Why do you suppose we are in such a god-awful hurry? Have we not yet learned to enjoy the journey, realizing there is no true destination, or at best it is always changing? It seems not.
We are missing so much, the soft and gentle get to know you, the graceful flowering friendship that kindles tidbits of unexpected understanding and spreads tentacles of precious connection: all the delightful foreplays of life that give us some many fortuitous reasons for living.
Getting nowhere together, discovering all the cracks and crevices within each other, learning what prompts another to dance in the rain as well as the bright sunshine, that’s every bit as important as brokering the deal, whatever the deal may be — in fact, more so.
There is a gentleness in going slow, in savoring each breath of exploration, in creating the unbreakability of true communion. Spending time, the thing we seem to not have enough of, setting aside the desire to complete, to win, to get there, and give of our time, to act in seeming contradiction to our own interests, creates the breakthroughs we so desperately seek.
It the secret behind anything we’d like to see last. To create a binding contract, one that requires no signatures or lawyers, one that stands and is perpetuated by the power of union, we must know one another, care about each other, see another as ourself.
It’s one small step towards the realization that there is no other. There never was. Caught up in the frenzied meness, a true meanness, there is no possibility of creating anything but more dissonance until we slow down and genuinely meet one another.
We seem to be living in a broken contract, one where the other doesn’t matter, where an other doesn’t hold any weight in automated action-reaction living. We see it on the highways, in the school yard, in politics, in all our disposable relationships. Anywhere we look, if we look with open eyes, we see it.
We’re living life at the speed of disintegration, disintegrating caring and connection, moving too fast to get to know each other, to find the ever-present reasons to honestly care about one another, the infinite reasons. We don’t have the opportunity to learn that there is more commonality than difference.
Mistakenly, we think if we move fast enough, we might not feel the fear that stalks us, that if we fill our lives with things to do, we won’t have to face that inner dread that we are missing something, something huge.
The wheel spins faster each time we look away, each time we skip right past the knot in our guts. Each time we push life away, it picks up speed, building inertia. Eventually it is bound to toss us out of the game.
Maybe there is no disposable relationship, not even one. What if every time we reject another, we are rejecting a part of ourselves? What if it actually hurts us when we do, like cutting off an arm, a toe, and ear? Maybe that’s what the pain is all about, the ache of dismembering ourselves, the death by a billion cuts. Our hearts and souls are crying out for us to stop, to stop the killing, to end the war against one another.
Maybe us hippies were right. Make love, not war. Slow down to the speed of love.
There is no appropriate bio for Amaya Gayle. She doesn’t exist other than as an expression of Consciousness Itself. Talking about her in biographical terms is a disservice to the truth and to anyone who might be led to believe in such nonsense. None of us exist, not in the way we think. Ideas spring into words. Words flow onto paper and yet no one writes them. They simply appear fully formed. Looking at her you would swear this is a lie. She’s there after all, but honestly, she’s not. Bios normally wax on about accomplishments and beliefs, happenings in time and space. She has never accomplished anything, has no beliefs and like you was never born and will never die. Engage with Amaya at your own risk.
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6 Comments
They were correct that making love is far better than making war but the way they treated Vietnam Veterans especially those that were drafted through zero fault of their own was and is appalling. They weren’t loving and peaceful toward them and their actions further traumatized many veterans (many were my friends and classmates) who came home already traumatized by a senseless traumatizing war. Not a shining example of love, peace or understanding and doesn’t bring inner peace to think about it sorry.
The title is a bit misleading from the content of the article. The hippies of the 60s and early 70s didn’t have it all right, that’s for sure. Had they, perhaps their message would have stuck. It didn’t because it missed the fact that ‘true’ love is unconditional. I agree, they missed it entirely with the Vietnam veterans, drafted or enlisted. War is not the answer. Love is but only when we understand what love truly is. Perhaps I should have put a little disclaimer before the article … Maybe the Hippies Were Right (partially). They also realized that slowing down and enjoying the journey is important. Just my two cents.
Organized religion has done some good for some people too but the horrific crimes they have all committed against one another and humanity as a whole make those atta boys all invalid and a hypocritical.. Just my 1 cent. If we are to respect someone or something it should at least be something that has consistently been good and humane not someone or something that picks and chooses when to be good and when to be bad.
But I agree that slowing down is a good thing so long as you don’t drag things with bad track records into it.
So those hippies who now watch Fox news, and are Neocons and warmongers? That same generation who sold great middle class jobs out for corporate greed?
The same ones who just keep pouring money into the military, never audit or tell them to tighten up their budgets?
Maybe the same people who only care about themselves, not others, and dont care where they live as long as the food is delivered hot and fast?
Do you really think that the hippies of the 60s and 70s are the Fox New supporters? It’s a big generalization, like saying all Millennials or all Gen Z. I have always had trouble with dividing people into neat little groups. It rarely tells the whole story. The polarities are bad enough without adding another way to divvy us up.
I can appreciate your opinion though, and kind of grok where it comes from. Many Boomers (and the hippies are now Boomers) became rather conservative as they aged and amassed wealth. But it’s not as bad as we’d think. 51% of the over 65 voted for Trump in the last election so that means at least 49% didn’t.
As to conservatism and Fox mesmerism, it’s not my experience at all. Fox isn’t my, nor any of my friends, cup of anything. I’m also not cheering for the military budget (geez who needs all that firepower), and I’m one of the old hippies I alluded to in the title and the closing paragraph.
We did have part of it right. War isn’t the answer, and yes absolutely, that includes taking an axe to the bloated military budget, and with my two cents I’d add: if we can learn to slow down and enjoy the beauty of life (something the hippies had right), we have a better chance of appreciating what we have in common with each other. That might allow us to quit warring against each other right here at home as well.
Some NEOCONs and fervent MAGA cultists are former hippies, but usually are the ones who managed to become very wealthy. Some are ex cops, cops, veterans, soldiers, doctors, lawyers etc. The common theme is that they are all extremely wealthy and or are susceptible to conspiracy theories and lies so long as it benefits them directly in some way shape or form. There’s even some ethnic minorities who are supporters but I think a deep dive into their backgrounds would find they too are ultra wealthy and benefit from tax breaks for the wealthiest of Americans and they too are susceptible to listening to and believing in propaganda as their leader(s) tell them that only they can save them and that everyone and everything else is bad, corrupt and lies. Just like organized religion has been doing for centuries which is where the NEOCONs learned such skullduggery in the very first place.