When I see pictures like this, I have a feeling that we might have missed a chance in American history to enrich our understanding of the Great Puzzle that is society. I'm not sure how society adapts itself to possible new templates, but I suppose there is a need for a charismatic leader and spokesman.
Then I consider that, after all, what this picture evokes in many people is in fact, a set of concepts that have taken hold -- a new way of looking at the earth and how to live in sympathy with it, a new respect for that which is unconventional, and a comfort in living with that, a new sense in many people that they are free people and people of choices and equivalent value.
And, I know some of those people and am very glad for it.
So what this calls up is not nostalgia, because I never had a painted bus or a life on the road, nor did I follow a band or go to a rock festival. What it calls up is a sense that often, freedom is what we make it, to hell with the critics, and that respect goes to better things than money or power.
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