Disraeli, Hippies & Me

Sometimes, several years go by when I don't think of, hear or see in print the word "hippie". Then, all of a sudden, I have trouble escaping it. I seem to be in one of those cycles right now.

There were several people on my recent trip to Mammoth Cave around my age with common late 60s, early 70s experiences. Some had been in the Peace Corps; others had taken cross country hitchhiking trips; several chose non-traditional careers, at least to start. One of the 40-something participants began referring to this group of us as hippies. No one, including me, seemed to be offended. And people fond of labels still sometimes call me a hippie. I've called myself one, although the drug piece of that stereotype never had any appeal for me. I didn't have much use for "free love", either.

But right now, the word just keeps popping up. A few characters in Dan Chaon's 2012 collection of stories "Stay Awake" (just finished) were called hippies; this past Sunday an old friend said, apropos of  a news story, she was proud her "hippie days" brought her to where she is today politically; this morning I came across an entry written in my blog notebook many months ago. It reads - "The hippie I was".

In the end, I'm proud of the pieces I retained from my own hippie years. Though I came close to doing a few very stupid things back then, common sense and fear of punishment prevailed in the end, so what I'm left with are values that still work for me. Benjamin Disraeli famously said -  "A man who is not liberal when he is young has no heart; a man who is not conservative when he is old has no head". That leaves me a little lacking in the head department, at least according to Disraeli. How about you? How does Disraeli's view line up with or stand in opposition to the arc of your life?