So I watched a documentary on the 60's.Allen Ginsberg was the main focus of the episode.
Flower child, social revolution,
peace, inclusiveness...
Songs, poetry, stories, words...
Openness, otherness...
Love.
I am a child of the 60's...
literally...
born in 1960...
September.
So when Ginsberg published Kaddish...
I was pooping my diaper, sucking my thumb,
suckling my mother.
Though I am considered part of the
baby boomer era...
just barely...
very barely...
only barely...
always barely.
I'm just now willing at 48 to rebel...
The flower child's establishment
turns out to be no different...
They held sit ins, gathered for Woodstock,
hailed the sexual revolution...
They attempted to peal away
the oppressive institutionalism of the day....
And then when they grew up
to become what they would be....
it all repeated...
at their hands.
I grew up when the flower children
came of age...
graduated college, got jobs,
married, had families,
I am a product of the
flower child's establishment.
I've witnessed the era of the yuppie,
the boom of the evangelical right...
home schooling, planned communities,
the commercialization of our soul.
Where did all their vision, hope,
love, acceptance, and passion go?
What was it all for?
We now sip Starbucks, suck gasoline,
and complain that our 401k has shrunk.
Though death in Darfur rages,
we sit...comfy....but not content.
Though people continue to starve,
we gobble down fast food
and look the other way.
Though people live without health care,
we spend millions on plastic surgery.
Where did all the vision, hope,
love, acceptance, and passion go?
What was it all for?
Long live the flower child...
but it seems all the flowers
wilted,
and many have died.
What was it all for?
I'm no longer dedicating
my life to the
establishment my
older brothers and sisters created.
I'm no longer sitting silent.
I choose to live with passion,
vision, love.
I'm ready to pick up the flowers
they threw down.
I'll leave their drugs behind.
What was it all for?
What was it all for?
What was it all for?
3 comments:
I'm a child of the 60s, and have wondered the same thing-where did it all go? And why haven't subsequent generations not had the same inspiration?
Nimue,
We are what we're taught. When I was a pre-adolescent the flower power era had simply become comercialized. Don't get me wrong my generation has fallen short. I am miffed that those a bit older than me didn't continue what they started! Like I said, they created only replaced the establishement with another one.
Bummer man. I'm ready to undue some of what they created.
"I choose to live with passion,
vision, love."
Sounds like an echo of our ordination vows. A good way to live, even if those around you take another path.
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