Where Have all the Flowers Gone?

Every day I’m a little more amazed at the materialism in our country. Even as many of us struggle to tighten our budgets and live in spite of lost wages, the majority of our citizens live abundantly by the world’s standards.  We are blessed and yet we find it difficult to be grateful.

In the late 60’s, when I was in my youth, we railed against materialism and the soul numbing we believed it caused. Our generation was determined to be different – to make a difference – to forgo luxury for the betterment of society.

A couple of years ago I awoke from the hyper focused years of child rearing to discover that my generation had sold out. We reared our children in abject indulgence! Perhaps we were lying to ourselves in the 60’s or didn’t realize how difficult it would be to live out our convictions. If the truth is told, at 19 we were probably just enamored with the notion of peace, love and rock and roll! What 19-year-old isn’t?  Although I do not believe we were that shallow.

I bucked society by choosing to stay at home with my children. But the whole time I felt like a failure as I watched my friends and peers “doing it all”. I comforted myself with the conviction that my children would be happier, better adjusted adults because they were not relegated to a life of day care and nannies.  I was determined that they would have their Mom and Dad and dinner time together every day of the week. At this time my young adult offspring have not displayed this esoteric effect to the degree I expected.   I realize there is still time and they are good, responsible, kind people who value the family connection. Perhaps this is enough.

Most of the members of my generation of peace, love and hippie beads chose to climb the corporate ladder and do nothing about health care or free-flowing illegal immigration. We can blame the government all we want for these problems but we are to blame. We elected them. We refused to speak loudly enough about our dissatisfaction over the years to make change happen in the way we believed we would.

And so, I find myself in the “middle years” with more issues than I ever dreamed I would, financial, social and otherwise. I have decided to start a new revolution; to ferret out the lost hippies of yesteryear and reignite the flame to put meaning back into our lives – whatever that is.  We must go back to the optimism of our youth, add the wisdom we have earned and begin to make a difference.  Now. There are no more tomorrows. It’s time to go back to the core values we left at Woodstock and make the world a better place. Care to join me?