Of Bus Trips and Revolutions and All That

I never met Neal Cassidy. I was born far too late for all of that whole scene. I had friends who spoke to Ken Kesey on the telephone merely weeks before he died. I was born a little too late for all of his scene too. Too late for that scene that he and Neal birthed in all their pains and goings on about this country...the birthing pains of a generation of intrepid travellers. I was born too late to really be a traveller. Garcia....dead. Leary....dead. Kesey.....dead. Cassidy.....been dead for decades now. Immortal.
We tried so very hard to travel in the manner of all those intrepid failures....absolutely beautiful failures. Failures of the highest caliber is what all that scene had turned into. That doesn't mean that they hadn't struck onto something with their conciousness expansion and their brotherly, sisterly, lovely love thing. It was all well intentioned, just a little too early....or maybe late....either way, it was all a matter of mistiming that resulted in a generation of disillusioned hipsters clamoring for a way off of the bus.
Only....there is no way off. Once a man has taken it in his mind to climb aboard such a vehicle, he can try and climb off all day long and only then will he realize that it will take a whole lot of road rash, and blood, and broken fingers and toes, and skinned knees, and all the like before he finds himself all in a pile on the hardtop street, just waiting for someone to come and scrape him up off the pavement and reshape him into something that can be put to use roofing houses or digging ditches or doing hard time or something of the like.
I refuse to be one of these people. I tried the whole travelling thing....no, not on a bus mind you.....but I will always be on the bus with Mr. Kesey....Captain flag and the rest of them have departed for parts unknown....Dr. Leary called it the ultimate trip.
I am one of the travellers, but where the last generation of seekers failed in a spectacle that crippled the nation for decades ( a crippling effect that continues to be a problem to this very day mind you ), I have taken a private journey and aim to succeed. You see, the problem with the whole hippy adventure is that these well intentioned bastards went about it all in the wrong way. These people tried to transform this nation in total disregard to the kinds of growing pains that such a radical change could cause in a nation of this size....with out considering the implications should their little experiment actually gain some momentum.
Needless to say, the little experiment did indeed gain a bit of momentum. All of this speed and independence culminated in what is now referred to only as "Kent State". You see....the nations immune system had decided to purge itself of this disease.
I, on the other hand, intend for my transformation of this great nation to come more slowly than all of that. I have transformed myself. I have friends that have transformed themselves. Now all that must be done is that which is constantly done by human kind all throughout all of prehistory ad infinitum. Procreation. One must first change himself and then focus on those in direct contact with him....then simply wait. Have kids, have a wife, and a family and wait. Let nature run its course. Teach your children. Be kind to your neighbors. Live for today, simply and within your means. Love each and every person around you. Selflessness and the like.

Sounds simple I know. Should one succeed and his children succeed and their children succeed. In 50 years, this place may be ready for a revolution the likes of which Kesey and Cassidy and the Bus and all of that could never have imagined.