Illegal Smiles

How many times have you heard somebody say, "I wish I could just go live on a deserted island. Just me and all my friends."? It's a great thought, everybody having fun without all the bull. But short of being on your own secret island, there always seems to be a gang ready to bust up your good times with guns drawn and God on its side. The Sin Squad. No sex and drugs. No drinking by the river. Turn that music down. Put your clothes back on. Kill those plants.

It amazes me, all the things people claim that God is against. All the different religions make this Supreme Being, who has never once spoken a word in public, have all these specific rules against pleasure. There are rules against eating certain foods and doing certain activities, even some days set down that one may or may not work. But the biggie in all religions is sex. Flesh, especially women's flesh, is sinful. Having women wear a burka and protesting a strip club is the same nonsense, just to a varying degree. A baby blown apart with a bomb is PG, a naked breast being touched is rated X. Ya gotta love it. If it feels good--unless it's that you're getting 50% off the price of something--chances are it's illegal or immoral. Uptight people have conspired to stamp out joy since the beginning of civilization.

What frustrates me is, it takes so little to be happy. Once a person gets it, the basics are all they need. The touch of others, music, enough to eat, the accessories of their interests, a place to live. In my decades of hitchhiking I saw a lot of different lifestyles and attitudes. It often seemed that the very happiest folks were shunned by their families and even subject to arrest. And the normal people who aren't miserable had to keep the best parts of their lives secret. It's crazy.

Happy people have put up with this reality throughout history, hiding and sneaking and lying to avoid offending the other people in their lives who were also many times hiding and sneaking and lying to avoid offending them. But if life is gonna continue on this planet, people are just going to have to stand up in defense of good times. All the shame and guilt is killing us. Happy people use less. Have some fun, pass it on.

My girlfriend and I were at a free music festival up by San Jose in early 1969. We'd heard about the publicized event being held nearby and rode up with friends from Orange County, but before we got there and bought tickets, we'd heard about this satellite festival. Groups would play at the pay event, then come to the free show and play there. The hippie organizer held up the local newspaper with the headline telling that he was being sued for like a million bucks by the producers of the other show. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his change. "Well, I've got about eighty cents. They're welcome to it." There were reports of riot conditions at the pay concert, with arrests and fights. The only trouble where we were that I saw was when a guy started a hassle with someone near him, but his friend said, "Hey, these people won't stand for you acting like that. Look around." And the uptight dude backed off and let whatever had bugged him pass. Laws and armed police can't keep the peace as well as prevailing opinion, like cigarette smoking is being drastically reduced by social pressure. You know the hell we'd be dealing with if cigarettes had been made illegal fifteen or twenty years ago. Just like Prohibition in the Twenties and the War On Drugs now, only worse. Imagine the concept on a worldwide stage.

Happy folks don't have as much time to hate and worry about what other people are up to. Be a Guerrilla Grasshopper and encourage an Ant to call in well to work. "I feel much too good to come in today." We've all only got so many hours to be alive. Save the planet; fun-loving folks are good for the environment.