Peace, Love and Rock N Roll

My generation is a motley, tattooed crew.  And, yes, pun intended.  We were the ones who wore love beads, protested the war, burned our bras and basically wanted to stick it to “The Man.”  Over the years I’ve discovered this…we have become “The Man.”  We may be tattooed and ride Harley’s, but deep down, we became the very thing we detested—conformists.  (Well, SOME of us have, anyway.  I think I still have a little Jerry Rubin rebel inside me somewhere…and I don’t know what to think about that.)

There is still something inside me that thrills when I hear the Jimi Hendrix rendition of “The Star Spangled Banner.” My feet start dancing when I hear Steppenwolf sing “Magic Carpet Ride.” And my little brain still occasionally reads “Guitar Player” magazine, like I’m gonna find an article about Eric Clapton, Frank Zappa, or Alvin Lee.  I mentally have an urge to shout “Diddy-Wah-Diddy” occasionally.  And if you don’t know what that means by now, don’t mess with it, to quote Mr. Natural.   I was a fan of counter-culture, not necessarily in a bad way, but more of a screaming “I-want-to-be-an-individual-leave-me-alone” kind of way.  I feel like I’m stuck in a time-warp, and I do not wish to move into the future. Because even though those were turbulent times, we could still go outside and catch fireflies after dark.  We could still drink Black Cherry Koolaid on our Grandmother’s porch and tell ghost stories.  We could still play Kick The Can and run as fast as we could, hearts racing with excitement. We could still walk to school without fear of being kidnapped or worse.  We could still leave our homes without our telephone and no one panicked.  If the phone rang and no one answered, (SHOCK!) we called back.  We rode to the mountains on the weekends with our parents.  We went to church.  We shopped at the grocery store on Saturday because it wasn’t open on Sunday.  We smoked candy cigarettes and didn’t die from either cancer or sugar overload.  We drank some type of noxious liquid from little wax soda bottles and we lived to tell the tale.  We survived without car seats, computers, and permanent press. 

Then, technology happened.  It descended on us like a flock of seagulls (yes, I also realize that’s the name of a band), and it keeps growing like the inflated monster it is.  Don’t get me wrong…I’m all for technology, and I realize the irony of what I’m saying as I type it on a laptop tablet computer.  However, I believe society has lost something of itself.  We have lost some of our humanity.  We have traded our conscience for algorithms.  We have bartered our free time for analytics.  We have exchanged our souls for bitcoin. 

So, what’s the answer?  I’m really not sure.  I think at the very least we could turn off the TV and go outside.  We could leave our phones behind on purpose.  We could unplug.  Even as I write this, I’m reminded of these words, “Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out,” a phrase coined by Timothy Leary.  I’m not advocating THAT, but I AM saying we, as a society, have lost a connection somewhere.  We’re driving down the road with only a couple of lug nuts on our spiritual automobiles.  We have missed something—something important.  We have missed God, and we have missed our connection with other humans.  This is something vital that we can’t afford to lose. 

So how do we get it back?  I’m not sure, but we could start by asking God “Where did I go wrong?”  You see, we can’t collectively fix the world doing what we’re doing.  But one brave soul CAN change the world.  We have to dig down deep inside ourselves, let God lead us, and move when we sense His direction.  And when we do that, we are moving into our God-given vision, and that’s transformation.  It’s transformation in the same sense that my generation wanted.  The difference is we left God out of our equation.  When we add God into the mix, the outcome will be quite different.  We will still face adversity.  We will still face war.  We will still face obstacles.  But the difference is, we will face them with Him. And that, my dear friends, is truly transformational. 

I challenge you today to do one thing, one small, tiny thing, outside your comfort zone to transform your day.  Just one.  It can be as simple as hugging a child.  It could be as complicated as making a new business plan.  It could be changing your perspective about someone.  Only you and God will know what it is.  But do it.  Try it.  And drop a comment here about how it went.  I would really love to hear about it and build a supportive community here for everyone who reads my blog.  I wish you a happy day.  Peace out!

The above pictures shows how I think I look as a hippie chick.  And the one below is how I actually look…