the "tree-hugging hippie crap" appreciation thread

In My Humble Opinion
1

As I was looking at the “Alternate Superpower” thread in GD, I came across this phrase:

Thing is, I like hippies and all their idealistic, tree-hugging crap. I was born in the Sixties and started school in the early Seventies, and a lot of my teachers and camp counselors were hippies or, at least, hippyish. When I was a kid, I always trusted men with beards (until I found out about rednecks). Hippies are idealists who dream of a better world and a better way of living. Their dreams may be impractical, but if it weren’t for dreamers things would never get any better. In an earlier age, hippies would have been bohemians, wiccans, cathars, yogis, essenes, desert fathers and mothers, shamans or sybils.

I would like to be a hippie, but unfortunately I don’t like drugs enough. I wouldn’t make it as the more natural type of hippie, either, because I’m not disciplined enough to meditate, eat natural foods or live a New Age life. I like my comic books and Big Macs. But the idealism is there. I’m definitely a hippie-friend.

Are you a hippie or a hippie-friend? Are there hippies in your family? Do you have hippie neighbors? Are you a tree-hugging hippie, a snake-dancing hippie, a black-light-poster-contemplating hippie, a peyote-chewing hippie, a Grateful-Dead-listening hippie, a mantra-chanting hippie, a redwood-sitting hippie, a social-worker hippie, an anti-war hippie, a legal-hemp-medicine-taking hippie, a legal-hemp-clothing-wearing hippie, a no-clothing-wearing hippie, a Frodo-reading hippie, a commune-living hippie, a skinny-dipping hippie, a pan-handling hippie, a Harley-riding hippie, an ankh-fingering hippie, a mood-ring-wearing hippie, a messed-up-and-bummed-out hippie, an Earth-mother hippie, a positive-karma-radiating hippie or a Jesus-Christ-being hippie, or some combination of the above? Post it here.

2

“You’re livin’ for the hyphen, man. Simplify. Simplify!”

3

I’m a long- haired, Santa- Cruz- visitin’, hate- the- Gap- on- the- corner- of- Haight- and- Ashbury, big- tapestries- on- the- wall- and- ceiling, hippie friend. I always thought I was born thirty years too late. Now if I liked pot, I might really have something here.

4

Far out.

All you need is love. The drugs weren’t the thing, it was the cutting loose that came along with the drugs that ended up being the thing. After you cut loose, you weren’t tied down, and you could go anywhere. Just doin’ drugs ain’t goin’ no where at all.

You can work, too, you know. You can’t become a cog, or a driver, though, because you have to quit being human to do that. So, you find a thing that needs doing, and you do that. And you do it really intensely, and really hard. But it won’t tie you down, because you never expected to drag yourself up on it. It’s just what you do, so that you aren’t a low spot in the human thing.

But you do have to give up the goods. You can’t get anywhere if you have to keep answering the question: “Who’s stuff is this?” If it’s your stuff, you own it, and it owns you just as much. And every now and then, the time comes to move it out of some other cog’s gear track. And you just became a cog, again. The stuff ain’t worth it. Loose it.

Don’t try to become someone. You already are someone. Be you, and being isn’t all there is to you. Do stuff. Don’t do stuff to be someone, do stuff because the doing is the thing.

The thing is, it already is right now, and it’s always going to be right now, so you have just do it. Someday ain’t never gonna happen. The ants aren’t wrong, they just don’t understand grasshoppers. Dying in the winter is part of the deal. A lot of ants dream about it, but not everyone really wants to be grasshopper. The ants don’t mention it much, but plenty of ants die in the winter, too. The grasshopper is dead. But he wasn’t dreaming.

Tris

5

Wow, man. :stuck_out_tongue:

6

Tris, your response brought tears to my eyes. We are still here. Still hip. Still involved. Still living the Renaissance that began in earnest in the 1960’s.

I am still one of the tree-hugging, anti-war hippies. I spent my career teaching in inner city schools, volunteered at a crisis counseling center, joined Amnesty International and the NRDC and volunteered as a docent at a wildlife park. All of this came about because of the Movement.

My taste in music still runs to old favorites like the Stones, the Band, the Beatles, Three Dog Night, and Credence Clearwater – but also includes jazz now. And it has always included serious music. I get high on opera.

I still wear my “celebration clothes” – boots, jeans, and lots of fringed brown suede. But my hair has a little gray now and to myself I look more like the Earth Mother that others have always seen in me.

I’ve remained a Christian all of these years, but I am open to other paths and other teachings. I went through a New Age phase, I guess, but grew beyond it.

Gloria Steinem has still influenced my thinking more than any other woman. I pay attention when she speaks.

One of the things that has changed is that I don’t smoke weed anymore. I would like to see it legalized though. And I will always miss the sense of “communion” that sharing weed with friends gave to me.

Trisk, if I had it to do over, I would live a much more simple life. You are right about possessions owning us. If I were on my own again, maybe I would chuck it all except for my thirty year old leather journal cover and my stone taken from the path at Walden.

In my heart, I am still the age that I was then, but I realize now that I don’t know exactly how old that is. :slight_smile:

tClouie, thanks so much for asking!

7

Hippies are dreamers…not do-oers. They are good at telling people to “stop this” or “stop that” or talking about doing stuff and that’s great and all except that some things require a more proactive solution than sittting around in a big group hug smoking weed - like solving world hunger or burning Charlie out of the bush.

Of course, I missed the whole hippy thing. I went to college in the Gap jeans A&F flannel dirty fraternity baseball cap Pearl Jam listening bong-hit smokin Bud Ice drinkin Generation-X slacker early 90s.

8

Nah.

I don’t know what a hippie is, exactly, but I have friends that might be labeled as such. While everyone on the planet is a dreamer to an extent, these people are certainly do-ers. They are the hardest working people I know come to think of it. One couple built their own earthship over the course of the last five years while holding down various jobs simultaneously and raising two daughters. Another is a musician and runs a natural foods grocery store. Another is an engineer with an alternative energy firm in Germany. Another couple (who built their own home also) heads up an environmental group protecting the Colorado river and handcrafts exquisite furniture. You may think that all they do is dream because of the way they look, but you’d be wrong.

9

I wear Patchouli Oil now & then, so I may be a semi-hippie. However, I bathe daily and shave so maybe not. :slight_smile:

[sub]No offense to any variant of Hippies - I like ya just fine.[/sub]

10

Oh and… I have a bumper sticker on my car that reads:

Practice Random Acts of Kindness & Senseless Acts of Beauty

and I bought it at The Hippie Store.

Am I a closeted Hippie?:eek:

11

The Hippie Movement is dead. It was buried in San Francisco & has been replaced by Free Men. --Peter Tork

So all those people you see walking around with long hair & beads aren’t hippies?
No. They’re Free People. --Peter Tork

I’m not a hippie. Charlie gave me this. [Lifts his bead necklace] --Davy Jones

Y’are too a hippie! See that long hair, you’re a hippie! See those beads, you’re a hippie! --Peter Tork

Don’t hit me with a stick, please! --Davy Jones

…Yeah, I think I’ll just say I’m a “Free Man.”

Actually, I even have short hair now.

12

And technically, I’m a sleeper punk. But that’s another story.

13

Every time I try to set my nightstick to “whomp” it gets stuck on “twirl”.

i.e. I’m not a hippie.

14

Hey!!! I’m a do-oer!! :smiley:

I did go through a major hippie phase in my younger years in which I really didn’t do anything at all. But I’m past that now. Heh Heh.

15

I thought having a job for any organization other than Greenpeace automatically disqualified you as a “hippy”.

16

My 2 cents:

cent one- Why does everyone think I am a dope head because I have long hair and listen to the Grateful Dead?

cent two- “tree-hugging hippy crap” is a qoute from Cartman of South Park fame. Sorry to spoil the moment.

Bad Kitty-kitty! Thats my Chocalate Chicken Pot Pie!

17

Says any member of my family the first time they’ve see me in six months:

Except my dad:

And I do, I guess. Long hair, beard (although the beard is trimmed since I started working in an office again). Dad found a picture of himself from 1972 (3 years before I was born), and you couldn’t have told the two of us apart.

I guess I’m as close to a hippy as I am to anything else. I do my share of dreaming, but I like to think I do a lot more than that. I love to travel, see new places, meet new people, and especially get to experience other cultures. I work now for a non-profit environmental organization (not Greenpeace, so I guess I’m can’t be a real hippy;)), mainly focused on watershed protection and stream restoration projects.

Some of the most interesting people I’ve met in my life, and some of the ones I admire most, are self-described hippies. What makes them so admirable, at least to me, is the breadth of experience that they have. I have a friend who has worked as a professional guitarist, a bus driver, a computer technician, a network security consultant, and a special effects technician for TV and movies. He’s run for mayor, unionized city workers, written a PhD thesis in anthropology, and he’s in law school right now. He’s also one of the friendliest, kindest people I’ve ever met.

I think hippies (at least in the sense that I think of them in) have a lot more in common with a lot of people on this board than you might realize. They’re open to new experiences, different from the traditional American upbringing (if there even is such a thing anymore). They approach these with an open mind and think for themselves - not letting other people’s values make decisions for them. I realize this isn’t necessarily the stereotye, but it’s what I think of when I hear the word.

I loved reading Triskadecamus’ and Zoe’s posts in this thread, and seeing what mack’s friends have done. And I went to college at the same time as msmith (at least in the early-mid '90s), but I guess I had a different experience. Anyway, if I have to have a label, I could do a lot worse than hippy.

And to echo Zoe’s closing, Thanks tclouie, for bringing it up.

18

I love hippies. Because I love my mom and dad.

How hippie are my parents? My dad graduated from Berkeley in 1969. His stories of college are about the time the National Guard declared martial law on campus and what it’s like to be tear-gassed (not pleasant, btw; I asked). My dad was drafted on the very first lottery (it was done by birthday; his is 9/14), and was a conscientious objector during the Vietnam War. To this day, the surest way to get my dad riled up is to discuss Vietnam with him. His alternate service was to be a social worker in East Oakland for four years. Later, he went to law school to become a civil rights lawyer. My dad was at Altamont - Woodstock was too far away - and mostly he just remembers that the Rolling Stones played. He was too far away to see the Hells Angels stabbing people.

My parents were married in 1973, in Berkeley. My mom walked down the aisle to a Pink Floyd song. I have a picture from their wedding framed. Dad’s hair goes to his shoulders and his shirt is embroidered with flowers. Mom has flowers in her hair.

Heck, they named me Kyla and raised me in San Francisco! Everyone I knew growing up was also a hippie.

My parents were (and are, really) honest-to-goodness hippies. It isn’t some crazy fad they thought was cool. They don’t like everything you might associate with hippies, because they don’t need to prove to anyone how hippie they are. For instance, my dad absolutely loathes (LOATHES!) the Grateful Dead. HATES them.

Now they’re just suburban mom and dad. They drive Hondas. They do boring stuff. But they still do, I think, wait for the revolution. They haven’t given up, I don’t think - they still boycott and write letters and call their representatives and hate Republicans (my dad is a Green, my mom is a Democrat).

19

I’m the one who used the phrase in a thread I started, and yes, it was just a quote and tribute to Cartman, who is probably responsible for re-introducing hippies to everybody under 15.

Which is, I would guess, a real bummer for the hippies.

20

I dunno. My mom thinks South Park is hysterical. Hippies have a sense of humor too, you know.