Maybe the Worst Thing Ever...

Many years ago, I was a hippie. But, then again, maybe I still am... Back then, my hair was brown, long, wavy and luscious. Now it's white. Ah, but my braid dangles to the mid of my back! Seriously, I have always thought "seriously" why in the world would anyone want to be "normal"? I mean, why be normal when you can be different!?

For me though, this being "different" was not a strategy: it still isn't. Going again to "back then" I was a true believer in the critique of the youthful philosophy embedded in the "hippie rebellion". While many of us were chanting "Hare Krishna" and / or using drugs to expand our consciousness (or just for the pleasures of a temporary escape), our collective hippieness had more to do with Jesus Christ than anything else...

Not that Jesus of Power, though. But the one that had gotten himself hijacked by the purveyors of a new religion: who become a castrated caricature of a god mired in theologies of human darkness and sin instead of a "Dragon-Shaman" from the desert who understood the virtues of both water and wine-making... who knew techniques of mind and heart expansion... who had seen the connections between sexism, racism, and injustice and oppression...  and who, like us, suddenly found himself conscripted to a Creed and power-system that simply mirrored that of Empire... 

Hippies adored Jesus and wanted him leading our rEvolution!

Quotations From Chairman Jesus (Compiled by David Kirk of the Emmaus Community: Foreword by Daniel Berrigan) fit in pocket or backpack and uncomfortably proposed that Christianity is a way of life not, fundamentally, a religion. That Jesus became the god of men who blessed war, profited off the marketing of guns, and exploited the poor provoked many of us (and still provokes some) to reject the idiocies of bishops and systems of power and to look East for spiritual sustenance...

On one night in particular, when (as I remember) nineteen years old, after long hours of deep questioning and meditation, I pleaded with my guru, Paramahansa Yogananda for an insight and help on my path forward. Never-minding that he was many years dead, Yogananda walked through the door of my room. I was quite surprised and wary. He simply smiled and walked right into me! Not "bumping" me, but right into me! Yogananda's body merged with mine: cell to cell, atom to atom, in an electrical shock-and-awe moment (minute? hour?).

Did I get an answer to my prayer? Nope. At least, not the answer that promised anything either clear or easy... and looking back, I now understand something that I didn't expect: maybe the worst thing ever was Jesus becoming a Creed of belief instead of a Call to action... and maybe the worst thing now is the refusal of Christians to follow Christ... Seriously, where are the hippies now? Who is reading the Gospels through the Eyes of the Saints? 

While everyone is consuming themselves silly and complaining about inflation, St. Basil wrote: "Property is theft." St. Leo the Great wrote: "The price of the kingdom is the food you give to those in need." St. John Chrysostom wrote: "I am criticized often for my continual attacks upon the rich. Yes: because the rich continually attack the poor." St. John Chrysostom also wrote: "Feeding the hungry is a greater work than raising the dead." Origen wrote: "We Christians do not bear arms against any country; we do not make war anymore. We have become children of peace, and Jesus is our leader." And in another preview of hippie enthusiasm, St. Basil also wrote: "The Holy Spirit is present completely in every human person. He is everywhere whole, and shared without being divided. According to what we can give as human beings, we participate in the Spirit." 

Finally, I have tried to maintain my hippie enthusiasms! I saw homeless men sprawled in gutters. I tried to help them... and found myself overwhelmed with work and blessings, both... and now I give, perhaps, too much time in remembering my years on the Chinatown streets... I teach what I can to my children and whomever comes wandering our way... I keep my eyes peeled for the hippies of tomorrow... And I just live with a heart that keeps breaking open, over and over and over again... Oh, and, thank you very much Mr. Yogananda! I do look forward to your next visit (maybe in another twenty years?) 

I'm having way too much fun with Michelle!

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