Hip, hip, not hooray? Be hip to which hippies are real.

I went to a poetry reading last night. The owner of the coffee shop where I spend a lot of time insisted I stay last night for it.  He introduced me to the organizer who also MC's.

The first reader was a woman who recited a poem she wrote about hippies.  I wish I could remember some of the exact words. . .but the gist was that they follow a certain style, and even a political ideology, but don't actually do anything of any importance.  Yeah. . free love and all that.  But where is the love now?  The original hippies became yuppies, the later hippies are now helicopter parents, the current hippies. . well, I don't know if there are any hippies now.  Hip sters are more prominent on the urban landscape.

I know people want to feel belonging.  It's powerful.  bell hooks has a new book out on that which I must read.

Sometimes people project a certain style as part of their membership in a group.  There is nothing wrong with that, but there needs to be some critical thought about the political affiliations that come with a certain style territory.  Those who are the most brave, like one of my professors who put her life on the line to protest in el Salvador, have a lovely style that is all their own, which can't be categorized.  Those that we call hippies, and hipsters, tend to be all about form, no substance.