CHOICES SHAPE YOUR FUTURE
By Judith Ashton
My son, Jack, got me an Electric Picnic ticket. Always up for adventure, I embraced the challenge!
It was a fascinating weekend in so many ways and all roads were leading to this musical mecca of the moment. A tribal gathering of the good, the bad and the inbetweeners; everyone, regardless of age, aspiring to be the best disinhibited version of themselves for a while.
Herds of folk. Wellies, bellies, buttocks, boobs and oceans of fake tan! People wearing whatever they liked or in some cases not wearing enough! In a world of conformity and uniformity there was a sudden tumultuous explosion of rampant individuality. All manner of hippie style, fashions and colours. The cheap and cheerful mingling with the Hunter boots and Barbour jackets; the pink gins and tonics with the Red Bull! The eco-chic tartan rugs and picnic baskets alongside the overpriced, deep-fried chicken and chips. Lots of drink and the ever-present, ubiquitous waft of marijuana.
There was also lots of deep, squelching, boggy mud. Imagine a sea of humanity slipping, skidding, sliding and getting sucked down; stuck trolleys and overloaded wheelbarrows full of stuff, simply abandoned. Inundated tents, damp sleeping bags and clothes wrung out… not to mention those who were “strung out”! Floods and mud ritually initiated the sea of brave, embattled wayfarers.
Creative artworks filled the fairy-lit woods, political discussions, health talks and food demos happened in striped, circus-like marquees and all genres of music, everywhere. Old and young trad artists, funk, indie, rock, reggae and thumping disco beat with flashing lights. Sweaty dancing and undulating, flailing crowds were all doing their thing, making their moves and shapes, under the full moon in Virgo! A sea of humming humanity moving as if there was no tomorrow, all making the best of the wet, present moment! A great celebration of breath and aliveness against a backdrop of a darkening, cloudy, rain-threatening night sky. Symbolic of where we all are on the planet right now.
A great mingling of contentment and confusion. Some revellers, very chilled and relaxed; some, self-consciously experimenting with egos and images, young and insecure, and the yet-to-be-born to their real selves… all wanting to have fun and obsessively capturing these carefully edited, laughter-filled moments on selfies.
It’s a rite of passage for youngsters and it got me wondering about my own youth in 1970s England, at university. I was a “real” hippie as opposed to a weekend one. I wore my colourful clothes, henna hair, patchouli oil and love-beads all the time, not just now and then, and hitch-hiked every day, luckily without incident.
In the 1960s and 70s, in the shadow of nuclear war and Vietnam, real Flower Power hippies were a counterculture, anti-establishment and an international movement which believed in “Free Love”, “Peace Not War”, anti-racism, women’s rights, civil rights, ban the bomb and so much more. It was a time reflected in the student protests and the music, think Bob Dylan, “Blowing In The Wind” and “The Times They Are A-Changin’” and Joan Baez, “We Shall Overcome”. We were ready and hoping to embrace “real” deep societal change, for something cosmically bigger than any of us individuals. It was a time of hope and flowering. Some looked for radical change of consciousness through spirituality, meditation, yoga and New Age therapies; some looked for change through psychedelics and drugs. Many went to India or San Francisco or back to the land to live communally and drop out of the so-called “rat race”.
From the 1980s and 90s, it all changed. Materialism, profits, rampant commercialism and over-exploitation of resources increased. Men cut their long hair, tie-dye dungarees became haute couture and fast fashion! People gave up connecting with their hearts, stopped looking into each other’s eyes and started looking at screens. The internet and social media landed. Greed and lies flourished.
Remember, the hippie generation was the first to see the photo of our beloved blue planet Mother Earth, Gaia, spinning in a vast universe. We realised our interconnectedness and green politics and environmental movements took root. Change didn’t happen on the grand scale we’d imagined; but some of the seeds we planted flowered; yoga, meditation, energy healing, wholefoods etc became mainstream.
Let’s look forward and embrace the hippie values of love and peace, mindfulness, importance of community and take time to breathe in the ever-present Oneness of Creation and never forget: the power of love is stronger than the love of power.
Listen to: Joni Mitchell “Woodstock”
