The Harvesters by Pieter Bruegel the Elder

 

THE OPEN ROAD

peace, love, happiness & understanding

 

October 2, 2025

 

Crossing a bare common, in snow puddles, at twilight, under a clouded sky, without having in my thoughts any occurrence of special good fortune, I have enjoyed a perfect exhilaration. I am glad to the brink of fear.

 

—from Nature, by Ralph Waldo Emerson

*

 

The Turn

 

There are the asters, of course

barnyard hollyhocks, determined

sky blue chicory flowers hanging on

Mostly though it’s the light

filtered through lingering fire haze

sharp and soft all at the same time

 

Bathe in the light, air freshening

rain, as green turns inward

leaves glisten yellow gold, red

 

A stoplight of sorts. Time to

get out the big books, deep

reflections, collars up and warm

 

Against the chill, that is,

surely, on its way.

 

—Elizabeth Domike, October 2025

*

 

Gail Lester shared this poem:

 

Gift

 

A day so happy
Fog lifted early, I worked in the garden
Hummingbirds were stopping over honeysuckle flowers
There was nothing on earth I wanted to possess.
I knew no one worth my envying him.
Whatever evil I had suffered, I forgot.
To think that once I was the same man did not embarrass me.
In my body I felt no pain.
When straightening up, I saw the blue sea and sails.

 

Berkley, 1971

 

—Czeslaw Milosz (1911-2004)

*

 

Someone wrote in the last [August] PLHU that Peace Love Happiness and Understanding are all related, inseparable—and I agree.

 

My ‘journey’ started with a search for Understanding—learning to understand those different from myself. It led me to five trips to the deep South to learn more about relations between whites and African Americans. Then to work with and mentor rough teenagers. Then to befriend a Native American woman and her family—and remain a friend for eighteen years. To work in the Hispanic community of Hood River as a tutor in English. To tutor severely dyslexic teenagers and adults (a very poignant experience!). To facilitate a discussion group of fifteen to twenty men at Two Rivers Correctional Institution (a life-changing experience!). 

 

And now (since my beloved prison group is no more), I am learning to understand imminent death as a Hospice volunteer. I am a ‘companion’ to two people, a 90 year old woman and (sadly) a 63 year old man. My conversations with the woman are jewel-like; she is a jewel. We have so much in common and we have become very close. My conversations with the man , after the first visit, have been non-existent; he is a paraplegic and bound in a hospital bed in his home, with his dear wife. He didn’t have the strength to talk, so I sit by his side, give him frequent fluids, watch 1980 reruns of Emergency!—- and give his wife the time to take a much-needed nap.

 

 

All of these journeys of Understanding result in Love for all those I meet, Peace in my heart that I can feel the love, and Happiness that this life can encompass so much richness.

 

—Jude Russell

*

 

Rocky is now at Oregon State Correctional Institution in Salem, with seven months to “the gate.” Here are excerpts from some of his letters:

 

8-21-25

 

When we reach out with our hearts, yearning to become entwined like ivy, spinning, climbing, and gently becoming together as one, like Baucis and Philemon, we show the world what love looks like.

 

I see it in nature, I see it all around, the way the soil meets the trees. It’s a relationship they share, made out of love—the way the sea is in love with the shore.

 

If you look closely at all the world and everything around, there’s a relationship that has no bounds. The harmony of love that keeps all things together is plain to see. It’s written in the mountains, rivers, clouds, rocks & upon our very own hearts.

 

8-22-25

 

It’s important to me to maintain a good amount of love and joy and acceptance of others & their feelings & emotions. My dream & my outlook is to experience as much wellness, beauty & love as possible with the people in my life. I want to support and love my friends & my new family as much as my being will allow. I would like to have deeply intellectual, witty, kind and smart relationships, to share my heart openly, unafraid of people—just love and be loved.

 

9-1-25

 

I remember back then…how badly I wanted forgiveness & did not know how to give it to myself & how you all showed me the way to do it, and how I still fought it, so I could beat myself up for all my wrongs. I can look back & now look at the present & see that if I just live and be love and accept all for what it is & do the best I can in all of it, I’m going to do good for my life & for the lives of others too. I can truly say that I like who I am and what I’ve become. I can’t wait to live a new life with a new me. I’m ready.

 

9-3-2025

 

I feel that the simple way of living a day-to-day life is one of the keys to a truly successful utopian society. We all work as one to achieve life…a happy life, full of quality & love. I’ve got ideas of what it should be, part of me thinks it is more of a state of mind. Living from an inner peace, a utopia inside each of us, and if that’s the case it would hopefully spread like fire.

 

9-13-2025

 

My first letter from OSCI….

 

On the way here I could see out of the window of the bus the change of nature. Right by Cascade Locks, the dark deep green of the forest & the fog and mist in the tops of the Douglas Firs were breathtaking. I could feel the mist in my lungs & it made memories of times past flood back into my mind. We have such a beautiful place on Earth. It’s enchanting & fills the soul with beauty….

 

In my heart of hearts, the want is always growing in my mind’s eye to share moments of joy & love amongst everyone. To have simple conversation that reveal what is deepest in our own beings. Never being held back, but showing our hearts to all who wish to see them. I want to be open to others when I’m no longer in a cage.

 

A cage I’ve outgrown so long ago.

I want to love what I do

I want to love who I want

and be loved in kind.

I want to see the world in

everyone’s eyes, feel the love

in their hearts, & know the

beauty we have in our minds.

The rain has cleansed the soul.

 

—Rocky Hutchinson

*

 

Last Saturday (9/27), Katie Radditz and I invited friends to get together to talk about the Essential Hippie Library. We all talked about where we were and what we were doing between 1968 and 1972. It was fun! This morning (9/29), I sent an email to Katie and Howard Thoresen and Charles Erickson. Here it is:

 

If you’re going to San Francisco

Be sure to wear some flowers in your hair

If you’re going to San Francisco

You’re gonna meet some gentle people there

 

For those who come to San Francisco

Summertime will be a love-in there

In the streets of San Francisco

Gentle people with flowers in their hair

 

—“San Francisco,” by John Edmund Andrew Phillips; popularized by Scott McKenzie

 

dear Howard & Katie & Charles

 

i had a thought this morning…

a lot was happening between 1968 and 1972

to mention a few things: women’s liberation, black liberation, native american liberation, gay liberation, the vietnam war and the anti-war movement, jimi hendrix, country joe and the fish (etc., etc.), magical mystery tour, marijuana, psychedelics, looking glass bookstore, birth control pills, the first earth day, hermann hesse, carlos castaneda, whole earth catalog (etc., etc.), hitchhiking, communes, crunchy granola, yoga, long hair, vegetarianism…

one thing we all remember were the vibes–they were friendly and laid back and gentle

you were supposed to DO YOUR OWN THING

and we did

thinking back on that time, what influenced me (and many others) most profoundly was THE EAST

the beatles went to india

alan watts and joseph campbell and gary snyder and r. h. blyth and allen ginsberg and richard alpert had all been to the east

and there were all those yogis and zen teachers–shunryu suzuki, krishnamurti, thich nhat hanh, nitya chaitanya yati, yogi bhajan, bhaktivedanta prabhupada, maharishi mahesh yogi, rajneesh, swami satchidananda, sasaki roshi (etc., etc.)

we read the tao te ching and consulted the i ching

it has always seemed incredible to me that there is no word for dhyāna in any of the european languages

we use the english word “meditation,” but it’s original meaning meant something like “to think about,” and dhyāna is about being awake and alert with a quiet mind

anyhow, here’s this morning’s new (to me) idea…

in addition to meditation and yoga, one of the big things we got from THE EAST was the idea of nonviolence—ahimsa

seems incredible, but…the west has always been so warlike

so not only did we not have the idea of sitting in silence, we didn’t have the idea of non-hurting—although there was the occasional oddball vegetarian, like leonardo da vinci and mary & percy bysshe shelley

martin luther king was inspired by gandhi

and his nonviolence helped to inspire the peace movement–the largest one in the history of this country up to that time

gentle people with flowers in their hair

as far as i know, vegetarianism traces its origin to buddha and mahavira–about 500 b.c. in india

it has been a part of buddhist and hindu beliefs ever since

and it changes the way you see the world

it changes the way you feel

i know why i became a vegetarian

it was because i read autobiography of a yogi and yogananda was a vegetarian, and i wanted to be like him!

i’m sure that people have tried to get out of going to war since the beginning of time–even odysseus tried to get out of going to troy by pretending to be insane—

but during the hippie era millions of young men all had the same feeling: 

“i don’t want to kill anyone”

and the fact that there were lots of other “gentle people” that didn’t want to do that made it easier to say “no” to war

joan baez and her sisters pauline and mimi had a poster of themselves with the slogan: GIRLS SAY YES to boys who say NO

well, that’s my thought for this morning

 

peace & love

johnny

*

 

Johnny put together a gathering of old hippies, whether we identify as that or not, to discuss the books of the Sixties and Seventies that were important to us.  We piled our books and comix on the center table like an altar. Some changed our lives and helped us along a new path.  Reflecting on our stories made me go back to some origins of non-conformism in literature and the influence in art from those seers and brave souls bearing witness.   

 

I love Thoreau, who influenced me when i took a break my senior year of college and lived in a cabin in the Mt Hood Forest, my own little pond near by Camp Creek.

 

Thoreau was criticized ferociously by his capitalist, conventional townspeople. They could not fathom the value of taking a retreat to pay close attention to his surroundings, to take a break from some prescribed working path. Out of that experience he wrote the first seminal ecology book and journals used now to study climate changes in agriculture. He was the first person to publish a Buddhist text in America, with the translation help of Elizabeth Peabody. He looked deeply at the consequences of cutting down the forest and shipping trees away on the new railroad lines. He wrote “Civil Disobedience,” which inspired Gandhi, Martin Luther King, and Thich Nhat Hanh in changing the world with nonviolent protest of social injustice. 

 

Coming up to the Sixties, there was the confluence of movements that led to a counterculture revolution. There was Women’s Liberation, and books like Sexual Politics. We ate “natural foods.” Food Co-Ops sprung up. Communes developed. There was Mother Earth News, Monday Night Class and Whole Earth Catalog. We protested against the Vietnam War and read Underground Comix—Mr. Natural and The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers. There were psychedelic posters of rock concerts at the Fillmore Auditorium. 

 

At Looking Glass Bookstore in downtown Portland, we distributed alternative magazines and comix mainly in the Pacific Northwest to record stores and bookstores and Natural Food stores. There was only one news distributor in town then, and every store got whatever the distributor gave them.  Mother Earth News was considered “radical”—dangerous to the status quo. Just imagine what people thought of Coevolution Quarterly and Whole Earth Catalog! We broke out of an era of accepted censorship that was not even realized by most people except artists.

 

There was also the Spiritual Revolution, when Yoga and the yogis came to the West Coast, bringing teachings and books first published in India, and later in the U.S. In Oregon we had our own bright lights: Ursula Le Guin, Gary Snyder, the Staffords, Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters—to name some of the game changers. 

 

Music and Theater and Literature made the counterculture a joyful intellectual and soulful revolution—out of the 50’s, into an era of freedoms. The government was so afraid. Feels very familiar to our current situation.  

 

I remember going to college in 1968, and for the first time, girls did not have to wear skirts to school or on campus. We just showed up with jeans and bicycles after a summer of love and enlightenment. 

 

On reflection from our talk Saturday, i realized how the counterculture spread up and down the East and West coasts. But much was not available across the Midwest, which might help to account for the divide we see today. How do we share the beauty of living without such experience to draw on? Art is the most important medium to cross and embrace communities! Censorship is the dark shut down. 

 

At the end of our gathering on Saturday, Andy Larkin consulted the I Ching, asking: How shall we live? The hexagram was number 8, Pi / Holding Together: “What is required is that we unite with others, in order that all may complement and aid one another through holding together.” It also warned of the great danger of having a corrupt leader at the center. Sigh. . .

 

I look forward to rereading some of the great books of hippie times: Hesse, Le Guin, Susan Griffin. And making bread again from The Tassajara Bread Book!  Thank you, Johnny, for holding us together, and taking a long view.   

 

Here is a poem from those days ringing true now.  

Gary agrees it’s a good one, and sends his regards.

 

I Went into the Maverick Bar

 

I went into the Maverick Bar   

In Farmington, New Mexico.

And drank double shots of bourbon

              backed with beer.

My long hair was tucked up under a cap

I’d left the earring in the car.

Two cowboys did horseplay

             by the pool tables,

A waitress asked us

                         where are you from?

a country-and-western band began to play   

“We don’t smoke Marijuana in Muskokie”   

And with the next song,

                         a couple began to dance.

 

They held each other like in High School dances   

                         in the fifties;

I recalled when I worked in the woods

                         and the bars of Madras, Oregon.   

That short-haired joy and roughness—

                         America—your stupidity.   

I could almost love you again.

 

We left—onto the freeway shoulders—

                         under the tough old stars—

In the shadow of bluffs

                         I came back to myself,

To the real work, to

                         “What is to be done.”

 

—Gary Snyder

 

—Katie Radditz

*

 

Kim and Perrin just got back from a trip to Iceland, England & Ireland. Here’s a poem:

 

The Weather Will Change

 

Sometimes you stagger with the wind

against your face, rain in a river down

your back, and you begin to wonder

how it’s fair to suffer so. But the weather

will change, sun come your way, and you

will wander easy once again. Sometimes

life is good, it all goes your way, luck

follows luck for days and days. But then

your weather changes, and you will

find it strange to suffer like the others

you passed by. Sometimes your country

falters, leaders lead astray, and all the old

assumptions for the good are gone. But

the weather will change, and we will

find it strange to remember our gloom

while it rained and rained and rained.

 

—Kim Stafford

*

 

Kim & Perrin shared this letter that Nick Cave wrote to a friend who had asked: “Where do you stand?”

 

Dear Alastair,

 

I acknowledge that this may be, to you and your friends, an unhelpful admission, but I’m not entirely sure where I stand on anything these days. As the ground shifts and slides beneath us, and the world hardens around its particular views, I become increasingly uncertain and less self-assured. I am neither on the left nor on the right, finding both sides, as they mainly present themselves, indefensible and unrecognizable. I am essentially a liberal-leaning, spiritual conservative with a small ‘c’, which, to me, isn’t a political stance, rather it is a matter of temperament. I have a devotional nature, and I see the world as broken but beautiful, believing that it is our urgent and moral duty to repair it where we can and not to cause further harm, or worse, willfully usher in its destruction. I think we consist of more than mere atoms crashing into each other, and that we are, instead, beings of vast potential, placed on this earth for a reason—to magnify, as best we can, that which is beautiful and true.  I believe we have an obligation to assist those who are genuinely marginalized, oppressed, or sorrowful in a way that is helpful and constructive and not to exploit their suffering for our own professional advancement or personal survival. I have an acute and well-earned understanding of the nature of loss and know in my bones how easy it is for something to break, and how difficult it is to put it back together. Therefore, I am cautious with the world and try to treat all its inhabitants with care.

 

I am comfortable with doubt and am constitutionally resistant to moral certainty, herd mentality and dogma. I am disturbed on a fundamental level by the self-serving, toddler politics of some of my counterparts—I do not believe that silence is violence, complicity, or a lack of courage, but rather that silence is often the preferred option when one does not know what they are talking about, or is doubtful, or conflicted—which, for me, is most of the time. I am mainly at ease with not knowing and find this a spiritually and creatively dynamic position. I believe that there are times when it is almost a sacred duty to shut the fuck up.

 

I’m not particularly concerned about where people stand—I’ve met some of the finest individuals from across the political spectrum. In fact, I take pride and immense pleasure in having friends with divergent views. My life is significantly more interesting and colorful with them in it. 

 

Perhaps this all amounts to very little, but I suppose, in the end, I value deeds over words. I see my own role as a musician, songwriter, and letter writer as actively serving the soul of the world, and I’ve come to understand that this is the position that I must adopt in order to attempt to cultivate genuine change. In fact, I am now beginning to understand where I do stand, Alistair—I stand with the world, in its goodness and beauty. In these hysterical, monochromatic, embattled times, I call to its soul, the way musicians can, to its grieving and broken nature, to its misplaced meaning, to its fragile and flickering spirit. I sing to it, praise it, encourage it, and strive to improve it—in adoration, reconciliation, and leaping faith. 

 

Love, Nick