Come Together
“Admit it. You aren’t like them. You’re not even close. You may occasionally dress yourself up as one of them, watch the same mindless television shows as they do, maybe even eat the same fast food sometimes. But it seems that the more you try to fit in, the more you feel like an outsider, watching the ‘normal people’ as they go about their automatic existences. For every time you say club passwords like ‘have a nice day’ and ‘weather’s awful today, eh?’, you yearn inside to say forbidden things like ‘tell me something that makes you cry’ or ‘what do you think deja vu is for?’
Face it, you even want to talk to that girl in the elevator. But what if that girl in the elevator (and the balding man who walks past your cubicle at work) are thinking the same thing? Who knows what you might learn from taking a chance on conversation with a stranger? Everyone carries a piece of the puzzle. Nobody comes into your life by mere coincidence. Trust your instincts. Do the unexpected. Find the others.” Timothy Leary | Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out
I came across this quote the other day and thought, this is exactly how I feel most of the time. I have a hard time with small talk. It drains me. I’d rather be alone. I’d rather read to expand my mind, be in nature, or make something, be creative. And at the same time, I know how important and life-giving relationship is. It’s what we were made for. That is why I seek those who like to talk about interesting (and sometimes controversial) topics, as well as those who like to talk about spirituality and the interior life.
For a long time I felt weird, an outsider. Sometimes I still do. But at the same time, I know who and how I am and I know God made me this way for a reason. I’ve grown to love me. It’s taken a long time. In fact, I want to strengthen these tendencies in myself, to grow even more into myself than I had the courage to do when I was younger. Our spiritual lives are as real as our physical lives, yet we rarely talk about it. AND there are lots of not-so-great things happening in the world that we should be tuned into, talk about and do something about! Why do most of us avoid such things?
After coming across this quote, I did a little research … Timothy Leary earned a PhD from Berkeley University and taught at Harvard. He had a documented genius IQ, and was an unusual, out-of-the-box thinker. He was also an advocate for LSD and other psychoactive drugs. For this reason, he’s sometimes known as the ‘Godfather of the counter culture of the sixties.’
I was born in the summer of 1969 and have been drawn to the culture and happenings of the sixties since high school. My rebellious nature made me question everything by the time I turned sixteen. I remember asking my mom if she and dad were hippies when they were younger, to which she replied something like, ‘oh no, they were dangerous.’ I took her answer at face value without digging further but it didn’t stop my infatuation with the times. I’ve always been an independent thinker.
In further research, I discovered that Leary, as a joke, was planning to run for the governor of California. He even had a fair amount of support behind him, and Lennon wrote the song, ‘Come Together’ as a way to unite the nation and to give Leary a theme song for his candidacy. I’m not sure of the timeframe on everything, as my research was short, but I also discovered that Leary was dubbed ‘the most dangerous man in America’ by the establishment, specifically Nixon. He was thrown into prison for two marijuana cigarettes but he escaped, and Nixon called for a nationwide manhunt. Leary was the perfect poster child for the establishment’s ‘war on drugs’ and a great diversion for a terrible war that was ramping up.
It’s interesting to learn these things now, and to see how much history has repeated itself in my lifetime alone. Was he the most dangerous man in America, or was he smarter than most politicians and had interesting and informative things to say about the establishment of the time … as well as a bit of a following? Also think about what you know about cannabis today, its widespread legality (finally) and medicinal benefits. On the flip side, think about what you know about prescription drugs today, the biggest money maker in America, and the real reason for the drug epidemic we see today.
What have you been told by the media (the establishment) and what do you know to be true? The sixties had a lot to teach us. Sure, there were lots of drugs (and sex and music), but there were also important ideas raised about coming together, not following the status quo and doing the right thing for the sake of love and humanity.
When will we wake up? Doesn’t it behoove us to? Or is it just easier to play dumb, live our meaningless lives of work (that will eventually kill us), following the rules, and eventually dying, wondering, ‘what was it all for?’ Now, if you excuse me, I’m going to do a deeper dive into that era so I can draw further parallels to the madness that is happening in our world today.
Photo by Rob Curran on Unsplash
