On the Eleventh Day. . .Shorthaired Hippies

hippie

A member, during the 1960s and 1970s, of a countercultural movement that rejected the mores of mainstream American life. The movement originated on college campuses in the United States, although it spread to other countries, including Canada and Britain. The name derived from "hip," a term applied to the Beats of the 1950s, such as Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac, who were generally considered to be the precursors of hippies. Although the movement arose in part as opposition to U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War (1955-75), hippies were often not directly engaged in politics, as opposed to their activist counterparts known as "Yippies" (Youth International Party)

Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.

hip·pie also hip·py (hĭp'ē)
n. pl. hip·pies
A person who opposes and rejects many of the conventional standards and customs of society, especially one who advocates extreme liberalism in sociopolitical attitudes and lifestyles.

[From hip2.]
hip'pie·dom n.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.

This is what our kids think we are:

Heck, I even use the term to describe myself at times. But how often do you stop and think what you really are saying when you use the term, hippie? I've been thinking about it quite a bit lately, as with many things having to do with language and what citizens are trying to describe when they speak. Couple that with how each person chooses to live and you have a wasp's nest to try and figure out.

I guess through the years I have focused on the following part of the definition more than others: A person who opposes and rejects many of the conventional standards and customs of society. Much is made of the parts that I choose to ignore, but think about what I'm focusing upon and think of what has happened this past year. Does an reasonably intelligent person think the standards and customs of our society are working for the common man? Does government and big business care about anything but themselves, profits and preserving the status quo? Maybe Thomas Jefferson was a hippie before the term was coined. He advocated abolishing government and the constitution every 19 years and starting over because some people would think of themselves before the good of all.

I'm not thinking so much about government and what it does or doesn't do for and to me. I guess I've given up on them and will "render unto Caesar what is Caesar's." Concerning the rest, I'll be a hippie.

I'll drive an old car with dents and rust because the people in the car are more important. A car is a tool, not a lifestyle statement. My ego isn't built by the size or cost of the car I drive. Point A to point B with a task.

Better yet, I will ride a bike. To feel wind and rain in my face. Not because I'm trying to be a hipster messenger cool cat. Because I like to ride a bike. And maybe I don't have to assuage my ego by driving a jacked up 3/4 ton piece of steel and aluminum that helps keep the Saudis in Bentleys and caviar.

I'll eat food that I have helped my family raise or someone locally has grown. Not food imported from across the country or hemisphere. And if I want strawberries, I'll buy them in May from the fruit stands around my town and not go to Savemart and buy them in January, even if the store has them for sale. I will have omelets with the eggs laid by chickens I feed each day.

If I see my fellow man in need, I will try to help to the best of my abilities. I will help with what I have, not from what I can buy.

I will wear used clothes when possible, from a variety of sources. The clothes will be worn until unusable, and then re used in a new way.

I will get every use from a foodstuff, product or object that I can. Egg shells will be used in the garden. Orange peels will be sliced to deter pets. Coffee grounds will scrub body and be composted for worms. Leaves and table scraps will make new soil.

I will try to make Reduce, Reuse, Recycle a truth and not a slogan.

And I am fortunate to have someone who not only wants to do the same, but shows me the way many times.

And I am thankful this is who my family is: