Once upon a time, in a place called America, some, mostly young, people had hope. They were called hopies. Many of these people believed they could save their own and their brothers' lives by ending a war in a faraway land. The hopies had young relatives called hippies. Sometimes it was hard to tell them apart because they believed many of the same things. They particularly believed that the war should end. They said things like "War is not healthy for children and other living things" and "Give peace a chance."
In 1969, a party was held in a town called Woodstock. A lot of hippies and hopies attended the party. The event seemed to take on special significance . (A movie, that no one has ever watched all the way through, was filmed at the party.) A song that was sung there asked the question about the war, "One, two, three, four...what are we fighting for?" No one in attendance had a good answer. It was a party, after all, perhaps the government should have had the answer.
The party ended after a few days. The hopies and the hippies grew old.
Many years later, a knight who was neither a hopie nor a hippie, although he could have been because he lived ath the same time, decided he wanted to be the King. He was in a race to be named King at the same time a lady, who had once been a hopie, was trying become Queen. The knight thought one of the nastiest things he could ever say about the lady, whom he desparately wanted to prevent from becoming the Queen, was that she had once been a hopie. He made fun of the party the hopies and the hippies had thrown long ago; it seems while they were having a party, although the lady who would be Queen was not actually at the party, he was being held captive in a prison. The knight thought the people would like him more because he had suffered while the hopies had simply tried to end his suffering.
The moral of the story is, why must the idealism of youth be disparaged as one grows old? Do we think less of our grown children because they once thought we were omnipotent? Are we too clever to believe we can remake the future in a more positive way? Do we get the leaders we deserve?
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2 comments:
John,
Great article. I remember in my hopie years (16 to 25) we had the answers to every problem on the planet be it man, beast,or nature.
Then we woke up one morning around the age of 35 and realized to our horror that we didn't have an answer for anything.
A decade later at 45 we had gotten so involved in surviving raising kids, corporate downsizing, and divorce court that we had forgotten what the question was.
Now as we approach 55, many of us are remembering the hopie years and those of us that have managed to avoid becoming comfortable with that downhill rolling snowball called greed and arrogance are saying to all who will listen, "Maybe we really can fix this!"
The miracle of it is that us old hopies are willing, yea even encourage those young pups (18 to 45 year olds) to join us in our efforts.(actually we need them to do the heavy lifting as our energy levels aren't what they used to be)
All that being said, dare we hope that at least some have learned from history?
I for one say YES! Forge on!
Lloyd:
History IS a great teacher, but too many skipped the class.
Youthful idealism should be treasured and nurtured as a gift. We tell children they can be anything they want to be and then at a certain age we say "get in line". Just make sure it's the same line I'm in though.
Youthful idealism need not be a function of one's age. Keep the mind open at any age to let possibilities in. I find the cynicism in McCain's derision typical of the closed minds of those running the show these days.
Leonard Cohen: "There's a crack in everything. It's how the light gets in."
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