Growing older is an adventure, it really is. Most of it I like. I am an old soul with a long memory, so being in an older body makes more sense. I'm extremely healthy, so even though I have aches and pains, even though I can't stay up all night anymore, or drink too much unless I'm willing to be completely out of it for days afterwards, mostly I'm so good with aging.
There are aspects of youth I miss very much. Approaching age 60 as I am, I hesitate to name specifically some of the things I miss. Ah what the hell. I miss the "zipless fuck" as we called it in the '70s. Honestly I wouldn't mention this except after thinking long and hard about liberty yesterday, I remembered the exhilaration of the era of sex, drugs and rock 'n roll. The social revolutions of the late '60s and '70s made me believe that true, honest Liberty, if not yet real, was certainly right around the corner. It was so exciting. The current moment feels somewhat like that time, with middle eastern revolutions, the execution of Osama Bin Laden, the monster tornadoes, tsunamis, earthquakes and extreme weather. Things are shaking, oh yeah.
It makes sense that I've been contemplating the ways in which I navigated through that period of tumult, yes? C'mon.
I don't miss the drugs at all, especially the serious psychedelics or anything speedy. I don't miss the music because I have plenty of music at hand. But "free love" ? That, I miss. Well, ok, maybe I only miss it now at the height of spring when the natural world is in a frenzy of free love. Most likely that's why I'm waxing rhapsodic about no-strings-attached sex. It's my way of dancing in shamanic alignment with the season. For heaven's sake!
The great social upheavals that unfolded just as I was coming of age convinced me to try all kinds of things, to experiment. That period of time made me believe anything is possible and love is the answer. I still believe it. Do you?
22 comments:
I was born about 10 years too late to enjoy all that stuff (well, I might have enjoyed it, but in my neck of the woods in 1979 or so it was long gone).
It's a beautiful day in Ohio & I think all our pollen got washed down to the Gulf of Mexico, so I'm gonna go to the park during my lunch hour to watch nature doing its spring thing. I'm taking my camera!
Yay!! Pics! We need pics. Enjoy the sunshine!
oh yeah! succumbing to the grip of lust. so much fun. I totally get the fertility celebrations of times past, everybody running around the forest getting it on with abandon. now that I'm past menopause, it's nice not to be at the mercy of estrogen but sometimes...sometimes, I miss it terribly.
Ellen? EXACTLY how I feel.
It's a funny nostalgia!
I think I'm in my Peggy-Lee-Is-That-All-There-Is?-Then-Let's-Keep-Dancing phase
Love is definitely the answer. Especially in spring.
Who talks of old age? That is just laughable.
Yeah, Angela, I'm realizing it's OK to feel exactly as I do, no matter what number of times I've spun around the sun.
YES, love is the answer! Of course, that depends on your meaning of the word, doesn't it?
The Greeks had four separate words for love. Many other languages have more than that to categorize and convey the different feelings of 'love'. I wonder why the English language lumps them all together?
I don't just think love is the answer, I know it! All we need is love!
Jo, how about all the loves? I'm referring early in the post to "free love" which is somewhat less substantial than other forms. By the end of the post I'm talking about universal love, you know: divine love.
I'm really loving the Tarot commentary and images on your sidebar. And I'm with you and Ellen in the longing for lust. Peace!
Thanks, Meri. Just today I thought maybe I should save some of them. I've just been deleting the text.
Of course it wasn't just sex, drugs and rock and roll. The anniversary of Kent State was just the other day. I was also thinking about the assassinations of that time. Jack, Bobby and Martin, all of them were such stellar humans. Not perfect, no, but still. It was shocking and scary.
reya this idea, this possibility was floated and even lived that things could be simpler, easier, better. work of all kinds could be more noble and directed towards personal and local and global betterment. it filtered through the many strata. it danced in suburban rec. rooms and downtown hotel ballrooms, it flirted with all the big power centres and i believe that a sort of change has happened, really it has. and in my head and in the heads and existence of so many of the people i love and admire, there's this dervish dance of what ifs and why nots spinning around the vibrating thread of 'beautiful'. it was all supposed to become beautiful. and i believe that it's possible that it will! i believe that people will make themselves available to love in a way that is not circumscribed by need and condition. i believe that it's happening (and has been for some time) and that it's why we're here. steven
yep,,,:)
The vibrating thread of beautiful.
Steven? YES. Thank you. Thanks.
Glenn - imagine me smiling. A big ole smile. Yeah.
Ah yes, I remember those days with fondness, and I'm thankful that I met my true love back then. So when I feel my sap rising in the springtime, I can turn to him (we're 31 years married this June) and ... Yeah. Nice.
there is a definite return of the sixties mood of change and rebellion around right now but perhaps with less of the innocence? or are we always innocent in terms of the greater picture? I love your blog - and all the comments. thanks!
Bozoette that is GREAT. Thanks for checking in.
Yes Val, less innocence which is, I think - a GOOD thing!
Interesting. The concept of the "open relationship" is something in the forefront of my life right now. The crux of it seems to me that if you're going to be monogamous it needs to be for a better reason than ego-based jealousy and control. I hold as ideals both the enlightened monogamous relationship and the enlightened open relationship. Either way, it's about attuning to the genuine flow. How it all plays out in this here world though, is of course a horse of a different color.
Reya, I haven't heard that term used in ages. Though I tend to think true love is separate from the sex. Love truly is a many spelendored thing.
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