BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//The Open Road:  a learning community - ECPv6.15.3//NONSGML v1.0//EN
CALSCALE:GREGORIAN
METHOD:PUBLISH
X-WR-CALNAME:The Open Road:  a learning community
X-ORIGINAL-URL:https://openroadpdx.com
X-WR-CALDESC:Events for The Open Road:  a learning community
REFRESH-INTERVAL;VALUE=DURATION:PT1H
X-Robots-Tag:noindex
X-PUBLISHED-TTL:PT1H
BEGIN:VTIMEZONE
TZID:America/Los_Angeles
BEGIN:DAYLIGHT
TZOFFSETFROM:-0800
TZOFFSETTO:-0700
TZNAME:PDT
DTSTART:20250309T100000
END:DAYLIGHT
BEGIN:STANDARD
TZOFFSETFROM:-0700
TZOFFSETTO:-0800
TZNAME:PST
DTSTART:20251102T090000
END:STANDARD
END:VTIMEZONE
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20250904
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20251002
DTSTAMP:20260424T042923
CREATED:20250905T005218Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250905T005746Z
UID:5830-1756944000-1759363199@openroadpdx.com
SUMMARY:peace\, love\, happiness & understanding  9/4/25
DESCRIPTION:  \nTHE OPEN ROAD \npeace\, love\, happiness & understanding \nSeptember 4\, 2025 \n  \nAh Love! could thou and I with Fate conspire \nTo grasp this sorry Scheme of Things entire\, \nWould not we shatter it to bits — and then \nRe-mould it nearer to the Heart’s Desire! \n  \n—The Rubaiyat  of Omar Khayyam\, translated by Edward Fitzgerald \n* \n  \nA map of the world that does not include Utopia is not even worth glancing at… \n  \n—Oscar Wilde \n* \n  \nTo create around ourselves the kind of world that we wish to live in—isn’t that the most important project of our lives? \n  \n—the Russian clown\, Slava Polunin \n* \n  \nI will not cease from mental strife \nNor shall my sword sleep in my hand \nTill we have built Jerusalem \nIn England’s green and pleasant land. \n  \n—William Blake \n* \n  \nWandering through Eutopias \n  \nOn Saturday\, September 13th\, I’m going to present ¡Eutopias! at Taborspace—the latest in a series of “entertainments.” Ideas of utopias and of paradise have always intrigued me. My original idea was to talk about\, and maybe read from\, famous utopias like Plato’s Politeia (The Republic)\, Thomas More’s Utopia and some more recent visions\, like Aldous Huxley’s Island and Ernest Callenbach’s Ecotopia. \n  \nAs I began my researches\, the first thing I discovered was that the topic of “utopia” is vast! It was like going down a rabbit hole\, and finding endless tunnels branching off. Easy to get lost. \n  \nLet’s start with Webster’s definitions: \n  \nutopia (noun) \n  \n1. often capitalized: a place of ideal perfection\, especially in laws\, government\, and social conditions \n2. an impractical scheme for social improvement \n3. an imaginary and indefinitely remote place \n  \nAgain\, according to Webster’s\, synonyms include: \n  \nparadise\, heaven\, nirvana\, Eden\, wonderland\, fantasyland\, Garden of Eden\, Zion\, Cockaigne\, Sion\, promised land\, Camelot\, Elysium\, empyrean\, Shangri-la\, New Jerusalem\, bliss\, lotusland\, never-never land\, joy\, fairyland\, dreamland\, dreamworld\, arcadia\, blissfulness\, euphoria\, blessedness\, gladness \n  \nYou can see where this is going… There are countless books and scholarly articles written just about “Arcadia” and the pastoral ideal in literature. The last word on the synonym list\, “gladness\,” is a synonym for “happiness”—which is another endless topic. Where to begin? \n  \nIn this essay\, I’m going to suggest that the utopian impulse arises from the irresistible idea that “things could be better than they are.” Another idea I want to explore is that “utopia” might be more about the way we see and experience the world than about the way things are—or might be. I want to look at literary utopias\, like More’s and Huxley’s\, and also utopian experiments in what we like to call “the real world.” Webster’s synonyms for “utopia” suggest imaginary places\, but I’m sitting in Eutopia right now—The Tao of Tea. More about this later… \n  \nA good starting place for our journey together through utopian realms is with Sir (Saint) Thomas More (1478-1535). He was a critic of capital punishment who had his head chopped off. (His original sentence was to be hanged\, drawn and quartered\, but Henry VIII commuted it to decapitation.) Thomas More coined the word “utopia” when he wrote a long letter (in Latin) to his friend Erasmus about a fictional traveler who had come upon an island in the New World where the customs were different than in 16th Century England. The two friends liked to joke with each other\, and “utopia” could be derived from the Greek outopia\, meaning “no place\,” or from eutopia\, meaning “good place” or “happy place.” In this essay\, I am “wandering through Eutopias\,” but if I had wandered in More’s Utopia\, I would have been arrested and punished for vagrancy. No slackers allowed. In many utopias\, like Gerard Winstanley’s\, everyone was required to work\, unlike Harry McClintock’s Hobo Utopia\, “Big Rock Candy Mountain\,” where “they hung the jerk that invented work.” But I digress… I can’t help it! I’m in a rabbit warren here! (Note to Reader: this essay may resemble the non-linear way my mind works: “that reminds me of another thing\, which reminds me of another thing\, which reminds me of another thing…”) \n  \nOn the positive side of the ledger\, in More’s Utopia they had NO MONEY! There was free public education for all—including women! There was freedom of religion—as long as you believed in God. War with other countries was to be avoided\, if possible. Capital punishment was reserved only for the most extreme crimes\, like murder. In More’s day\, you could be hung for picking pockets or for being a “witch.” \n  \nThe first major literary utopia is Plato’s Republic—two thousand years before Thomas More’s Utopia\, although Webster’s synonym “lotusland” suggests that Homer’s Odyssey gives us glimpses of pleasant imaginary realms—the Land of the Lotus Eaters\, and Calypso’s island\, and the land of the Phaeacians. In the Gilgamesh epic\, the hero visits the mortal-turned-immortal Utnapishtim\, who lives in a magical realm at the End of the World. \n  \nOne more thought about Odysseus and utopia. The beautiful Goddess Calypso offers him a life of pleasure and immortality (!)\, but he wants to go home and live out his last years with his wife Penelope. That’s his utopia! \n  \nI wouldn’t want to live in Plato’s ideal city-state—(like Stephen Dedalus\, I would get kicked out\, anyway)—but I want to give Plato full credit for doing something radical and new—criticizing his own society. Aristophanes does this too\, in a comic vein\, without presenting serious alternatives. That’s not his job. He’s a comedian.  \n  \nPlato was the first person to write out a detailed rational alternative to his society. Up until that time\, my guess is that people accepted the society that they lived in as “the way things are.” Maybe there was some complaining\, and even a few suggestions. Of course\, as Heraclitus and the Buddhists say\, everything is always changing\, and especially in Periclean Athens\, where there were major innovations in theater\, democracy\, philosophy and sculpture. \n  \nUnlike Homer’s imaginary Land of the Lotus Eaters\, Plato was imagining societal improvements that he hoped would actually come about. Even though Athenians were proud of their city and considered it superior to other cities\, Plato believed that there was a lot of room for improvement. He missed some obvious things\, like the abolition of slavery and equal rights for women. He outlined five different forms of government\, of which he felt rule by a Philosopher-King was the best. Democracy was near the bottom of his list. \n  \nThe five forms of government that Plato outlined\, in ranked order\, are: Aristocracy\, Timocracy\, Oligarchy\, Democracy and Tyranny. We think of “Aristocracy” as meaning rule by an “upper class.” Plato\, who coined the word\, meant something different. From aristos\, “the best\,” he meant rule by the wisest and most virtuous people in the polis. Plato\, who devoted his life to Philosophy\, the “love of wisdom\,” wanted to ensure that the ruler of a city state was\, by rigorous training\, the wisest person. Someone like him. He spent a lot of his life trying to get his philosophy students to go into politics and to get tyrants to become philosophers. That last project didn’t go well for him. He was arrested and sold into slavery by the tyrant Dionysius I of Syracuse. \n  \nTimocracy was rule by (hopefully) honorable military leaders. Oligarchy is rule by wealthy elites—something we are quite familiar with. There has never been a pure Democracy—not here and not in Periclean Athens. Plato thought that because people were susceptible to demagogues\, they might actually elect a tyrant. Fortunately\, that could never happen here.  \n  \nPlato had a special\, personal reason for distrusting Democracy. The citizens of Athens had voted to put his beloved teacher Socrates to death.  \n  \nTyrannos was once a neutral word that just meant “king.” By Plato’s day\, experience with tyrants had given the word a negative connotation. They were more likely to be selfish and cruel than wise and virtuous. \n  \nA form of government that Plato doesn’t mention is “Kleptocracy\,” rule by thieves and conmen who use their political power to enrich themselves. There are many examples in the modern world\, including the Somoza Family in Nicaragua\, Putin and the other Russian oligarchs\, the Saudi royal family\, the Trump family\, et cetera. Maybe Plato didn’t need the word “kleptocracy” because it was assumed that kings (tyrants) like Cyrus the Great naturally amassed the most wealth. \n  \nPlato’s system was rational—too rational. It highlights some fatal flaws in utopian visions: there is no one right way to live; one person’s utopia is another person’s dystopia; good societies are not created by one person telling everyone else how to live. They evolve out of complex collective changes—for better or worse. \n  \nThere’s a eutopia inside Plato’s utopia\, known as the Allegory of the Cave. According to Plato\, our ordinary experience of the world is a play of shadows on the walls of a cave. We can break our chains\, make our way to the mouth of the cave\, and see the Sun. In India this is known as moksha\, “Freedom”; in Buddhism\, nirvana\, which might be translated as “extinction.” Buddha spoke of it as “waking up.” Plato said that if you try to tell the dreamers in the cave about the indescribable reality you have seen\, they will think you are mad. \n  \nIn the two thousand years between Plato’s vision and More’s\, people in Europe weren’t writing about how things could be better here on earth. This was seen as a Fallen World. Hopeless\, really. Paradise would come for some after death\, in Heaven. Jesus’ death on the cross redeemed humanity from Sin and Death. Unless it didn’t. In Dante’s vision\, an eternal Paradise of Light and Love for the fortunate few is balanced with a nightmare vision of eternal punishment\, pain\, torment and damnation for the majority of “sinful” humans. \n  \nAn Interlude:  \n  \nFor me\, The Library is Eutopia!—Multnomah County Library or my own library. Powell’s Books. Belmont Books\, Backstory Books & Yarn! BOOKS!!! Every book\, like every person\, is a World. Some of my best friends are authors: Walt Whitman\, William Shakespeare\, Susan Griffin\, R. H. Blyth\, Thomas Traherne\, Harold Bloom\, William Blake\, J. Krishnamurti\, Hafez\, Han Shan\, Lao Tzu… It’s a list that goes on and on and on. \n  \nMoving right along… \n  \nAnother way of looking at utopias is that every time someone\, alone or with others\, attempts to make something new\, something beautiful\, something good\, it is a utopian experiment—starting a nonprofit organization (there are millions of them on Planet Earth)\, opening a new restaurant or a new bookstore\, growing a garden\, painting a picture\, making a movie\, putting on a play. Eutopias are everywhere! \n  \nIt’s important to note that some people’s ideas of a better world are at odds with other people’s ideas. In many imagined utopias wealth is abolished and people share everything. That’s definitely not Ayn Rand’s version. And at the worst\, some utopian visions\, when put into practice\, bring about more suffering than we can even begin to imagine. The visions of Adolf Hitler and Mao Tse-Tung\, and the deaths of millions\, come to mind. Many attempts to make things better\, make them worse. The dream of the Industrial Revolution to free us from toil and solve all our problems had ecological consequences that were not imagined. \n  \nIn fact\, there’s always a Snake in the Garden. No matter how good your idea\, there will be problems. Because any imagined world\, just like “the real world\,” has things in it that “don’t work”—that are unfair\, unjust\, flawed. No matter how clever we are\, we can’t avoid suffering or death. \n  \nAccording to the legend\, Prince Gautama was already a grown man with a wife and a son before he had any idea that there were such things as sickness\, old age and death. He was so troubled by these things that he left his palace in search of some kind of answer. After years of soul searching\, he had an experience of perfect inner peace and freedom. He taught that suffering is caused by craving and that when we wake from our delusions we get off the endless Wheel of Birth and Death—we’re awake\, we’ve seen the Sun\, we’re free! In later Buddhism\, the bodhisattvas decided that they didn’t want to get off that Wheel. They wanted to return again and again to the world of suffering mortals in order to help them. \n  \nBack in the Hippie Days\, a lot of people started communes\, where they could go back to the Land\, grow organic fruits and vegetables\, and live together in Peace and Harmony. This was not a new idea. In the Nineteenth Century there were all kinds of ideas about\, and experiments with\, making a better world (for humans)\, like Brook Farm and Oneida. Two impressive examples are The Communist Manifesto of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels and the spiritual vision of Joseph Smith and the founding of the Mormon Church. \n  \nsome notes:  \n  \nEvery society and every culture\, from the first homo sapiens till now\, is an experiment\, a work in progress\, that is always changing—slowly or rapidly. And they are all different. Because they are not all alike (impossible!)\, you will naturally find that in some places people are relatively friendly and happy\, and in other places people\, on the whole\, might be more angry or unhappy. There are countries where practically every adult is an alcoholic! That can’t be good. In Bali\, there’s a special ceremony for children when they reach the age of six months. They  touch the earth for the first time! Up until then\, they are constantly held by mothers\, fathers\, brothers\, sisters\, aunts\, uncles\, cousins\, neighbors. \n  \nThis variety is true not just of countries and cultures\, but of states and cities and towns and families. By sheer chance\, you can be born into a family where you are loved and admired and valued\, or one where you get your teeth knocked out. \n  \nNow\, back to Marx and Engels and the Mormons… \n  \nThe basic idea of Communism is: “From each according to his ability\, to each according to his need.” This doesn’t sound so terrible\, does it? In fact this idea is as old as the hills. When people lived in tribes and hunted and gathered food\, this was the only possible arrangement. Food was shared with everyone—even those too old or too young to get it for themselves. \n  \nOn More’s island of Utopia\, and in many imagined and actual utopian experiments\, sharing was preferred to competition. The words “communism” and “community” are related. The dreams of Marx and Engels didn’t turn out well in places like Russia and China because of ruthless totalitarian ideologues who were happy to murder millions of people in order to pave the road to a “better world.” Maybe “mixed-economies\,” like those in Scandinavia\, provide the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people. \n  \nMarx’s vision and Buddha’s and Muhammad’s changed the world. Joseph Smith’s vision changed Utah. Just kidding. But it certainly caught on with a lot of people. According to a statistical report of the Church of the Latter Day Saints\, as of December 31\, 2024\, there were 17\,509\,781 members worldwide.  \n  \nEvery religion and every country—every town and city!—can be seen as a utopian experiment. They are all flawed. That’s the Snake in the Garden. And the “flaws” are not small. Sometimes they are mind-boggling. Anti-Semitism for the Nazis. Our “Founding Fathers” were in favor of Free Speech and Freedom of Religion. Those are good things. Unfortunately\, our utopian experiment was “flawed” by a program of genocide against the people who already lived here\, and the most brutal slavery in the history of the world. \n  \nAnd another thing\, and another thing… \n  \nOur whole civilization is “flawed” by being Patriarchal. The God of Abraham doesn’t have a wife!  \n  \nOur Scientific-Materialist-Rational-Industrial-Capitalist Civilization is slightly flawed by the fact that in order to make the planet into a theme park for humans\, it is bringing about the sixth major “Extinction Event” in the history of the planet. That’s not good. \n  \nThe world is always everything-at-once. While most people are trying to be helpful\, there are always some geniuses that are working on new methods to kill everything that lives. It has been ever thus.  \n  \nVladimir Putin could decide—all by himself—to have the Russian military invade Ukraine. The United Nations is the eutopian experiment that’s supposed to prevent that from happening\, but\, alas!\, it’s flawed. Like this essay. Like everything. \n  \nOn the other hand… \n  \nI don’t want to end my essay on eutopias on a gloomy or despairing note. That would be wrong! It is dismaying for those of us with dreams of universal peace and love and happiness to witness seemingly endless examples of violence and greed and fear. It seems to me that the news media and social media relentlessly distort our perception of what is happening. If someone goes into a store or a school or a church and shoots people\, it makes the news. If a mother puts her newborn baby to her breast\, it’s not news. Is someone grows a carrot\, if a doctor in an emergency room saves a life\, if a child sings a song\, if a poet writes a poem\, if people volunteer at a food bank\, if a puppy licks your face\, it’s not news. You get the idea. I’m pretty sure that what’s happening right now on our beautiful blue planet is that most people are doing good things\, things that are useful and helpful—cooking food\, teaching school\, making love\, fixing the plumbing. Mostly people are generous and kind.  \n  \nEven if some people are trapped in visions of hatred and fear\, we can live in love. If hurt people hurt people\, we can be part of the healing. We can continue to help co-create a culture that nurtures what is best in everyone. In spite of countervailing forces\, we can be kind. We can be good. We don’t have to wait for Eutopia to come “some day.” We can make Eutopia where we are\, for ourselves and for others (who aren’t really “other.”) \n  \nSpring is expected to come again next year. (A firetruck just drove by and the handsome young firemen waved to the children.) We can write poems\, sing\, dance\, put on plays\, meditate\, do yoga. We can re-read “Song of Myself.” We can laugh and cry. \n  \nIf you look for them\, you can find eutopias everywhere. \n  \nEverything\, without exception\, is miraculous. \n  \nEveryone\, without exception\, has a radiant beauty at the core of their being. \n  \nI’m sorry… \n  \nI didn’t get around to talking about Brook Farm\, Sankai Juku\, Huxley’s Island\, Woodstock\, Rabelais’ Abbey of Theleme\, Gonzalo’s vision in The Tempest\, the pastoral eutopias in The Winter’s Tale and As You Like It\, Slava Polunin’s Moulin Jaune\, Bread & Puppet Theater\, The Farm in Tennessee and Plenty\, The Big Orange Splot\, World Central Kitchen\, Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights\, Ko-Falen\, Plum Village\, Farmers Markets\, Homeboy Industries\, Shakespeare’s Globe\, Elysian Fields\, the East Village\, Portland\, Plato’s Academy\, Oregon Country Fair\, the Quakers\, the Shakers\, the writings and projects of Christopher Alexander\, pirate utopias\, Golgonooza\, Shangri-La\, Alice’s Wonderland\, Transition Towns\, Valhalla\, Esalen\, Las Vegas\, Atlantis\, The Book of Revelations\, Portland’s Japanese Garden… \n  \nThere are endless tunnels in the rabbit warren. They go on and on… \n  \nIn Conclusion (for now): \n  \nThe Multnomah County Library is Eutopia. The Tao of Tea is Eutopia. Thursday morning coffee with my friends is Eutopia. FaceTime conversations with Howard Thoresen in New York and WhatsApp video conversations with Stratis Panourios in Athens are Eutopias. The room where I sit on the couch every morning\, across from Nancy\, enjoying quiet time and journal writing is Eutopia. \n  \nAnd… \n  \nSilence is Eutopia. Samādhi is Eutopia.  \n  \nThere’s a place I like to go every day\, a place of deep peace and boundless bliss\, a place of miracles everywhere and love without limit. I call it “The Golden World.”  \n  \nMy primary felt sense is that I’m living in Paradise\, that Eutopia is my home. \n  \n–Johnny Stallings
URL:https://openroadpdx.com/event/peace-love-happiness-understanding-9-4-25/
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://openroadpdx.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/0-1.jpeg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20251001
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20251106
DTSTAMP:20260424T042923
CREATED:20251001T214214Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251005T112536Z
UID:5871-1759276800-1762387199@openroadpdx.com
SUMMARY:peace\, love\, happiness & understanding  10/2/25
DESCRIPTION:The Harvesters by Pieter Bruegel the Elder \n  \nTHE OPEN ROAD \npeace\, love\, happiness & understanding \n  \nOctober 2\, 2025 \n  \nCrossing 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. \n  \n—from Nature\, by Ralph Waldo Emerson \n* \n  \nThe Turn \n  \nThere are the asters\, of course \nbarnyard hollyhocks\, determined \nsky blue chicory flowers hanging on \nMostly though it’s the light \nfiltered through lingering fire haze \nsharp and soft all at the same time \n  \nBathe in the light\, air freshening \nrain\, as green turns inward \nleaves glisten yellow gold\, red \n  \nA stoplight of sorts. Time to \nget out the big books\, deep \nreflections\, collars up and warm \n  \nAgainst the chill\, that is\, \nsurely\, on its way. \n  \n—Elizabeth Domike\, October 2025 \n* \n  \nGail Lester shared this poem: \n  \nGift \n  \nA day so happy\nFog lifted early\, I worked in the garden\nHummingbirds were stopping over honeysuckle flowers\nThere was nothing on earth I wanted to possess.\nI knew no one worth my envying him.\nWhatever evil I had suffered\, I forgot.\nTo think that once I was the same man did not embarrass me.\nIn my body I felt no pain.\nWhen straightening up\, I saw the blue sea and sails. \n  \nBerkley\, 1971 \n  \n—Czeslaw Milosz (1911-2004) \n* \n  \nSomeone wrote in the last [August] PLHU that Peace Love Happiness and Understanding are all related\, inseparable—and I agree. \n  \nMy ‘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!).  \n  \nAnd 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. \n  \n  \nAll 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. \n  \n—Jude Russell \n* \n  \nRocky is now at Oregon State Correctional Institution in Salem\, with seven months to “the gate.” Here are excerpts from some of his letters: \n  \n8-21-25 \n  \nWhen 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. \n  \nI 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. \n  \nIf 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. \n  \n8-22-25 \n  \nIt’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. \n  \n9-1-25 \n  \nI 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. \n  \n9-3-2025 \n  \nI 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. \n  \n9-13-2025 \n  \nMy first letter from OSCI…. \n  \nOn 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…. \n  \nIn 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. \n  \nA cage I’ve outgrown so long ago. \nI want to love what I do \nI want to love who I want \nand be loved in kind. \nI want to see the world in \neveryone’s eyes\, feel the love \nin their hearts\, & know the \nbeauty we have in our minds. \nThe rain has cleansed the soul. \n  \n—Rocky Hutchinson \n* \n  \nLast 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: \n  \nIf you’re going to San Francisco \nBe sure to wear some flowers in your hair \nIf you’re going to San Francisco \nYou’re gonna meet some gentle people there \n  \nFor those who come to San Francisco \nSummertime will be a love-in there \nIn the streets of San Francisco \nGentle people with flowers in their hair \n  \n—“San Francisco\,” by John Edmund Andrew Phillips; popularized by Scott McKenzie \n  \ndear Howard & Katie & Charles \n  \ni had a thought this morning… \na lot was happening between 1968 and 1972 \nto 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… \none thing we all remember were the vibes–they were friendly and laid back and gentle \nyou were supposed to DO YOUR OWN THING \nand we did \nthinking back on that time\, what influenced me (and many others) most profoundly was THE EAST \nthe beatles went to india \nalan watts and joseph campbell and gary snyder and r. h. blyth and allen ginsberg and richard alpert had all been to the east \nand 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.) \nwe read the tao te ching and consulted the i ching \nit has always seemed incredible to me that there is no word for dhyāna in any of the european languages \nwe 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 \nanyhow\, here’s this morning’s new (to me) idea… \nin addition to meditation and yoga\, one of the big things we got from THE EAST was the idea of nonviolence—ahimsa \nseems incredible\, but…the west has always been so warlike \nso 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 \nmartin luther king was inspired by gandhi \nand his nonviolence helped to inspire the peace movement–the largest one in the history of this country up to that time \ngentle people with flowers in their hair \nas far as i know\, vegetarianism traces its origin to buddha and mahavira–about 500 b.c. in india \nit has been a part of buddhist and hindu beliefs ever since \nand it changes the way you see the world \nit changes the way you feel \ni know why i became a vegetarian \nit was because i read autobiography of a yogi and yogananda was a vegetarian\, and i wanted to be like him! \ni’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— \nbut during the hippie era millions of young men all had the same feeling:  \n“i don’t want to kill anyone” \nand 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 \njoan baez and her sisters pauline and mimi had a poster of themselves with the slogan: GIRLS SAY YES to boys who say NO \nwell\, that’s my thought for this morning \n  \npeace & love \njohnny \n* \n  \nJohnny 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.    \n  \nI 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. \n  \nThoreau 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.  \n  \nComing 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.  \n  \nAt 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. \n  \nThere 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.  \n  \nMusic 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.   \n  \nI 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.  \n  \nOn 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.  \n  \nAt 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. . . \n  \nI 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.    \n  \nHere is a poem from those days ringing true now.   \nGary agrees it’s a good one\, and sends his regards. \n  \nI Went into the Maverick Bar \n  \nI went into the Maverick Bar    \nIn Farmington\, New Mexico. \nAnd drank double shots of bourbon \n              backed with beer. \nMy long hair was tucked up under a cap \nI’d left the earring in the car. \nTwo cowboys did horseplay \n             by the pool tables\, \nA waitress asked us \n                         where are you from? \na country-and-western band began to play    \n“We don’t smoke Marijuana in Muskokie”    \nAnd with the next song\, \n                         a couple began to dance. \n  \nThey held each other like in High School dances    \n                         in the fifties; \nI recalled when I worked in the woods \n                         and the bars of Madras\, Oregon.    \nThat short-haired joy and roughness— \n                         America—your stupidity.    \nI could almost love you again. \n  \nWe left—onto the freeway shoulders— \n                         under the tough old stars— \nIn the shadow of bluffs \n                         I came back to myself\, \nTo the real work\, to \n                         “What is to be done.” \n  \n—Gary Snyder \n  \n—Katie Radditz \n* \n  \nKim and Perrin just got back from a trip to Iceland\, England & Ireland. Here’s a poem: \n  \nThe Weather Will Change \n  \nSometimes you stagger with the wind \nagainst your face\, rain in a river down \nyour back\, and you begin to wonder \nhow it’s fair to suffer so. But the weather \nwill change\, sun come your way\, and you \nwill wander easy once again. Sometimes \nlife is good\, it all goes your way\, luck \nfollows luck for days and days. But then \nyour weather changes\, and you will \nfind it strange to suffer like the others \nyou passed by. Sometimes your country \nfalters\, leaders lead astray\, and all the old \nassumptions for the good are gone. But \nthe weather will change\, and we will \nfind it strange to remember our gloom \nwhile it rained and rained and rained. \n  \n—Kim Stafford \n* \n  \nKim & Perrin shared this letter that Nick Cave wrote to a friend who had asked: “Where do you stand?” \n  \nDear Alastair\, \n  \nI 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. \n  \nI 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. \n  \nI’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.  \n  \nPerhaps 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.  \n  \nLove\, Nick
URL:https://openroadpdx.com/event/peace-love-happiness-understanding-10-2-25/
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://openroadpdx.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/main-image-1.jpeg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251011T140000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251011T160000
DTSTAMP:20260424T042923
CREATED:20251004T022124Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251004T022124Z
UID:5889-1760191200-1760198400@openroadpdx.com
SUMMARY:The Stories We Tell Ourselves: An Inquiry  10/11/25
DESCRIPTION:  \nThe Stories We Tell Ourselves: \nan inquiry  \n  \nwith Johnny Stallings \n\nSaturday\, October 11th\, 2 pm \nArtspace Room at Taborspace\, 5441 SE Belmont  \n  \nthis Open Road event is free \n  \n 
URL:https://openroadpdx.com/event/the-stories-we-tell-ourselves-an-inquiry-10-11-25/
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://openroadpdx.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/81jHEoQqLHL._AC_SX679_.jpg
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR