In my novel What’s Left, there’s one big subject Cassia couldn’t ignore — not if she truly wanted to understand her father. It’s the whole hippie thing.

As he noted, in a sentence no longer in the text:

Will any of our inner music — our desires and activity — ever come into a reliably ongoing harmony?

As was this tidbit:

This is all new to him. The language, unfamiliar, even after the sporadic trips of his youth. The music, profoundly moving.

Take his hitchhiking. As her aunt Nita explained in yet another deleted text:

As for your body, well, you could go about anywhere on your thumb. Maybe not the Deep South or some of the big cities. But adventure called. Out in the countryside. And in the heart of the metropolis. There were moments when everything turned utterly surreal. It was a wild time, wasn’t it? You’re forgetting Nixon got reelected to the White House? If you were a freak — a hippie — you were part of a stream of kindred souls. You saw the world askew. You wanted to explore and discover new vistas, many of them psychedelic. You knew there was more — much more — than what your parents had ever imagined. The entire world was spiraling, about to go out of control, or so it seemed. And what difference does any veracity of hitchhiking in the subways make? Aren’t those some wild stories? Where does the line fall between what’s real and what’s imaginary? Didn’t your Baba land here after all? Return to build on earlier connections? Who cares how he got here as long as he did? You believe this is where he was destined, don’t you?

Admittedly, it’s a lot to take in. More than we needed, in fact. Even this flash:

Angels as hitchhikers! As subway riders! As candy store clerks!

~*~

These days, I’m left with mixed feelings.

Where do you think the hippie movement missed the boat? And what do you think it got right?

~*~