You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one...

Hello my friends... how is everyone doing? I went through an intern burn-out/"I'm not supposed to be in America right now" phase last week, and in an attempt to inspire rather than depress my audience, I decided not to blog. No one is perfect, we all have bad days, sometimes more than one in a row, and there is nothing wrong with that! Sometimes you just gotta take Grandma Shirley's advice, "take it one day at a time" ...I do know for a fact she got that from her Over-Eaters Anonymous program, but whatever works, right? :)

Weekend highlight: I got to see the Flaming Lips yesterday for a FREE concert on the National Mall. That concert is crazy entertaining, the lead singer puts himself in an inflatable bubble and crowd surfs. He also has these weird trippy things on stage with him-- like an inflatable smiling sun, and some strange caterpillar/butterfly thing. My roomie and I enjoyed rocking out to our favorite, "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots," though I am pretty convinced none of those songs make any sense.

In the spirit of my blog name, I'm going to give you some American Studies "word vomit." So, the concert was part of a bigger festival for Earth Day. Obviously an event like this attracts all sorts of hippies, but have you ever noticed that there are different 'cultures' of hippies? I suspect this maybe has something to do with class differences, but even if that isn't always the case, it is kindof interesting. For example, (sticking to men here) there are the 'dirty' hippies that grow their hair long, put it back in silly clips and hair ties, they dress kindof ragged and generally don't match. Then there is the more "manufactured" hippy -- they have the camelback backpacks and a clean, but "down to earth" looking waterproof jackets. They generally have shaggy hair, that looks longer than the traditionally accepted length for boys, but it still looks cleanly trimmed. Just an observation...

Tonight in class we had two homeless people come speak to us. One was named Steve, he has chosen to live in voluntary poverty, as in he left life as a businessman to come live in DC with no home, no car, no phone, no money, no bed... and according to him, no worries. He spends the majority of his time hanging out in a park by American University making flutes out of bamboo sticks. He gives the flutes to people he meets, and claims that when he gives a child a flute in a park that it becomes a source of attention and community. I believe him, but I guess what struck me the most is that he has the ability and access to resources to be more productive, to do good at a larger scale, and he is choosing not to. Taking a step back, that is obviously what makes him happy... and with the wise words of Coleman McCarthy, "We aren't called on to do great things, we are asked to do small things in a great way." I think that the idea of choosing to live THAT simply is interesting at the least. The other woman who came to speak to us was really awesome, her name was Ellen, you should check out her website: http://prop1.org/. She is really trying to make a grassroots advocacy effort, pretty inspiring -- especially since I have been contemplating the effectiveness of our government during my time here. She seems to still believe in it.

Moving right along... people have been calling me naive and idealistic, even "innocent," left and right since I've started talking about this peace studies stuff. And when I went home for the weekend, 5 seconds outside of the DC bubble convinced me that these ideas are definitely not well-accepted. I made the mistake of pulling a McCarthy line at my Passover seder. A younger family friend was being questioned about what he wants to do when he 'grows up,' I put in my two cents, "do what you love and the money will follow" only to be attacked right away and basically called an idiot. Cool. I'm not denying that there are a lot of issues I am ignorant to, many systems I don't quite understand, or that I'm not completely on my own and able to understand what it is like to live without an income. But we live in a society that is too money obsessed, and I'm not a fan. All I'm saying is that we can try. We can try talking about these issues and explore ways to incorporate them into our lives. We can try to hold ourselves repsonsible for doing our tiny part, and maybe we will get some good out of it. At the least, you'll influnce one more person, and even that is an accomplishment. So I'm trying to do my tiny part, trying to start dialogue, trying to go greenER, trying to be kinder... adding more love to the world never hurt anyone, but as Coleman says, "If love were easy, we'd all be good at it." Well love is something I usually have to give. Any takers? ;-) (Not that you really have a choice anyway...)

Some peaceful quotes for you to nibble on:

"He who has experienced good in his life must feel the obligation to dedicate some of his own life in order to alleviate suffering" Albert Schweitzer

"People are unreasonable, illogical, and self centered.
Love them anyway.
If you do good, people may accuse you of selfish motives.
Do good anyway.
If you are successful, you may win false friends and true enemies.
Succeed anyway.
The good you do today may be forgotten tomorrow.
Do good anyway.
Honesty and transparency make you vulnerable.
Be honest and transparent anyway.
What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight.
Build anyway.
People who really want help may attack you if you help them.
Help them anyway.
Give the world the best you have and you may get hurt.
Give the world your best anyway."
--Mother Teresa