We’ve got to get ourselves back to the garden.
We are stardust
We are golden
And we've got to get ourselves
Back to the garden
The words comes from Joni Mitchell and they concern the music weekend that defined a generation: Woodstock. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woodstock
In July of 1969 we landed the first men on the moon and it seemed that even outer space was no longer a limit to human achievement. On August 15-18, exactly a month later, nearly half a million young people arrived on Max Yasgur’s farm in Bethel, New York (40 miles south of the eponymous Woodstock). They were there as Joni Mitchell’s song describes it,
I'm going on down to Yasgur's Farm
I'm gonna join in a rock and roll band
I'm gonna camp out on the land
I'm gonna try and get my soul free
“Try and get my soul free”. The Hippies were known for wanting to explore their inner space, and Woodstock was going to be the pinnacle of Hippiedom (“An Aquarian Festival of Peace and Music”). It turned out far from that ideal. The weather was terrible, the planning haphazard, facilities dangerously inadequate, and serious drug abuse was rife. The only thing these festival attendees seemed to have in common was an opposition to the Vietnam War. But you can’t build a viable culture merely opposing something. The Garden of Eden that Joni Mitchell envisaged turned quickly into a pile of mud, overflowing toilets, and drug overdoses.
If that description seems a little harsh then look up the Isle of Wight Festival that took place in Britain a year later (26-31 August, 1970). That ended in a full scale riot. 1970 was also the year that Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin died of drug overdoses in close succession. But if we’re really looking for a marker of the end of Hippiedom, then look no further than the free Rolling Stones concert at Altamont in California (6 December, 1969). www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFJPdpwVaWk
300,000 people were there and the security hired was the infamous Hell’s Angels motorcycle gang. In the literal bloodbath that followed, the dream of a generation of peace and love came crashing to the ground.
Why is it that we can’t find our way back to Paradise? Perhaps that’s the fatal flaw of Ego, believing in the first place that we have the resources to achieve the impossible dream. One of my pet hates is the motivational phrase, “You can achieve whatever you want. There are no limits.” Well the physical universe says otherwise. And in fact if we try to defeat the laws of gravity, entropy and thermodynamics we’ll find ourselves reduced to the stardust that Joni Mitchell was alluding to. In the end death awaits us all. It’s not a question of if, but when and how, and we can’t even always choose the latter.
But one day two thousand years ago, a Jewish teacher named Jesus of Nazareth was arrested and nailed to a Roman cross. Beside him were two thieves. One of them dared Jesus saying, “You say you are the Son of God. If so then, save yourself and us.” The other thief in a moment of repentant reflection answered him, “We deserve our fate, but this man has done nothing wrong. Now is the time to fear God.” And Jesus looked over to this man and said to him these words of hope, “This day my friend, you will be with me in Paradise.”
We’ve just got to get ourselves back to the Garden.
“Woodstock” performed by Crosby, Still, Nash and Young (still the best version).
www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKdsRWhyH30
We’ve got to get ourselves back to the garden.
We are stardust
We are golden
And we've got to get ourselves
Back to the garden
The words comes from Joni Mitchell and they concern the music weekend that defined a generation: Woodstock. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woodstock
In July of 1969 we landed the first men on the moon and it seemed that even outer space was no longer a limit to human achievement. On August 15-18, exactly a month later, nearly half a million young people arrived on Max Yasgur’s farm in Bethel, New York (40 miles south of the eponymous Woodstock). They were there as Joni Mitchell’s song describes it,
I'm going on down to Yasgur's Farm
I'm gonna join in a rock and roll band
I'm gonna camp out on the land
I'm gonna try and get my soul free
“Try and get my soul free”. The Hippies were known for wanting to explore their inner space, and Woodstock was going to be the pinnacle of Hippiedom (“An Aquarian Festival of Peace and Music”). It turned out far from that ideal. The weather was terrible, the planning haphazard, facilities dangerously inadequate, and serious drug abuse was rife. The only thing these festival attendees seemed to have in common was an opposition to the Vietnam War. But you can’t build a viable culture merely opposing something. The Garden of Eden that Joni Mitchell envisaged turned quickly into a pile of mud, overflowing toilets, and drug overdoses.
If that description seems a little harsh then look up the Isle of Wight Festival that took place in Britain a year later (26-31 August, 1970). That ended in a full scale riot. 1970 was also the year that Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin died of drug overdoses in close succession. But if we’re really looking for a marker of the end of Hippiedom, then look no further than the free Rolling Stones concert at Altamont in California (6 December, 1969). www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFJPdpwVaWk
300,000 people were there and the security hired was the infamous Hell’s Angels motorcycle gang. In the literal bloodbath that followed, the dream of a generation of peace and love came crashing to the ground.
Why is it that we can’t find our way back to Paradise? Perhaps that’s the fatal flaw of Ego, believing in the first place that we have the resources to achieve the impossible dream. One of my pet hates is the motivational phrase, “You can achieve whatever you want. There are no limits.” Well the physical universe says otherwise. And in fact if we try to defeat the laws of gravity, entropy and thermodynamics we’ll find ourselves reduced to the stardust that Joni Mitchell was alluding to. In the end death awaits us all. It’s not a question of if, but when and how, and we can’t even always choose the latter.
But one day two thousand years ago, a Jewish teacher named Jesus of Nazareth was arrested and nailed to a Roman cross. Beside him were two thieves. One of them dared Jesus saying, “You say you are the Son of God. If so then, save yourself and us.” The other thief in a moment of repentant reflection answered him, “We deserve our fate, but this man has done nothing wrong. Now is the time to fear God.” And Jesus looked over to this man and said to him these words of hope, “This day my friend, you will be with me in Paradise.”
We’ve just got to get ourselves back to the Garden.
“Woodstock” performed by Crosby, Still, Nash and Young (still the best version).
www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKdsRWhyH30