Bless that man! In 1969, Max Yasgur rented out 600 acres of his farm near Bethel, New York to the largest gathering of youth ever in history. He was happy to host, what he thought, would be about 50,000 young people on his farm. Instead, Mr. Yasgur, ended up shocked; 500,000 hippies showed up to celebrate freedom, love and music on his land. We were a lost and unhappy generation of teenagers. Many of us had run away from home, and many had no home to go to. We started taking psychadelics to escape and in our escape, found many inner treasures, which Ioana Cosma has captured beautifully in this poetry; a deep understanding of what this generation was searching for.
Three glorious days of love, peace and music; we were in heaven! Some of the biggest and best rock and roll bands played, while hippies dreamed and swayed in the field: The Grateful Dead, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin with her raunchy, drawn out vocal chords; Richie Havens, and so many more who are looked at today as Rock and Roll idols of the past. We showed the world peace was possible. We showed the world how much more beautiful and free life could be. Our youth came out of Woodstock with a dream to change the world!!
It was an era unlike any other mankind had or has since experienced. The psychological and emotional growth was exponential ... it was as if we had stolen this wisdom from a future time. We wanted to share it, but adults did not want to listen. We lived, loved, made music, made love, built communities we called communes, and we learned to live together in a supportive and loving way. Those of our generation who did not sell out to corporate America on down the years, still await the coming of this world we know was possible. Instead, they ignored us.
Though they ignored us, we brought forward with us a word that would bring us the peace of meditation; a word that would remind us always of how close we came to building the society we dreamed of; a word that could take us back to this way of being within us whenever we wished to visit ~ and this word is Om.
