By most definitions of the word “alive,” I was alive in the sixties. But by other definitions. I may not have been.
For instance, I was in class one day in college when a protest began outside.
"It's a sit-in," someone said.
"Over what?" I asked.
"The war in Viet Nam."
"The what now? Where?"
That sort of semi consciousness calls into question that whole "alive" thing.
Plus, I never dropped acid, unless you include a bottle of vinegar on the kitchen floor. What a mess!
No acid. No ludes. No shrooms. No bandana. Never entered a head shop. I didn't even attend Woodstock, which, as big a music fan as I have been, seems weirdly sad.
Yes, I lived in the sixties, but wasn't, apparently, always alive.
But I can make up for all of that in November 2020 by voting for Marianne Williamson. We don't always get the chance to atone for failures: I'm not going to miss this one.
This means I will have to attach to the bumper of my car the world’s longest bumper sticker, one that reads “If you think any of this wonkiness is going to deal with this dark psychic force of the collectivized hatred that this president is bringing up in this country, then I’m afraid that the Democrats are going to see some very dark days.”
To paraphrase Sheriff Brody in Jaws, I'm going to need a bigger...uh...bumper.
Of course I've always been partial to political statements I don't quite grasp, and hers is one of them—perhaps many of hers; but I won't deny that she has the zeitgeist of the era down pat, something that comes more from observation than from patrolling the halls of Congress.
Admittedly, she's a little shaky on some topics—she waffled on vaccines, but recently issued a statement saying she “understands that public health must always be placed before issues of individual choice.” She has also derided depression as a condition, but mainly because she believes that the over-prescribing of anti-depressants contributes to suicides—a belief the FDA shares.
As for her competition, Elizabeth Warren has all the facts; Bernie Sanders, the passion. Harris and Biden are waiting to duke it out tonight. They're all good, and all a quantum leap ahead of the president—the current "dark psychic force of collectivised hatred." Still, if Ms. Williamson can exorcise that demon and stop our heads from spinning 360 degrees every time he tweets something asinine, I'm willing to give her a chance.
As for the bandana, anything is an upgrade over a MAGA hat.
(VW bus image courtesy of Dreamstime.com)
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