Where did all the flowers go?

I'm continually amazed at the materialism I encounter in our world today. In the late 60's when I was in my youth we railed against materialism and the mind numbing it created. My generation was determined to be different - to make a difference - to forgo luxury for bettering society. I have recently awoken from the hyper focused years of child rearing to discover that my generation has sold out - and we have reared our children in abject indulgence. Perhaps we were lying to ourselves all along. We just wanted peace, love and sex! What 19 year old doesn't! But when it came time to walk the talk we all went for the high paying jobs and the big houses in the suburbs.

I bucked society by chosing to stay home with my children while all the time feeling like a failure because I wasn't "achieving". I comforted myself with the conviction that my children would be happier, better adjusted adults for not having been left in day care or with a nanny. They have not at this point in time displayed that esoteric effect. Their nanny raised cousins are Eagle Scouts, RA's and college grads. Mine have both dropped out of school. It seems meaningless to them - we chose to be low income to have more say over who our children became and now they are not "becoming" very rapidly and we find ourselves in financial distress. Low and behold my generation of peace, love and hippie beads chose to climb the corporate ladder and do nothing about health care or free flowing illegal immigration. We can blame the government all we want for these problems but we are to blame. We elected them. We refuse to speak loudly enough about our dissatisfaction with our leaders. We have not chosen lives that will positively affect our world. Me included!

And so, I find my self in the "middle years" with more issues than I ever dreamed. I'm starting this blog to seek out those lost hippies and start a new revolution. One that will cry out and insist we have national health care, put a cap on immigration, help the poor, aid the sick, and go back to the values we left at Woodstock in the 60's.

Join me won't you?