Hippies- exploring communitas

Reflecting on the past few years of my life, I've realized the majority of my experiences have been unfulfilled attempts at achieving a sense of perfect community. I believe this is a common goal among humanity, and a strong dream shared by those attending college. We view this place of people of a similar age with similar goals and interests as the perfect place to find this community. While college does offer this to an extent, it did not compare to what I had hoped for. Stress and schoolwork get in the way. I then realized perhaps the closest I've ever seen to this community is at music festivals. Raised in bluegrass and folk festivals, I learned early on the importance and joy of unity, sharing, freedom, and openness. At these festivals, the primary factor lending to the sense of community was the absence of false presentation; there is an emphasis on presenting oneself exactly as is in order to create genuine connections. I then saw that this was not unique to music festivals alone, but extended commonly to any community of "hippies." I was able to share in this community at the local collective restaurant, at the food co'op, and on the trails. The difference between these locations where I encountered strangers and the campus where I was near people I knew was that these strangers were more willing to be transparent and accepting where barricades were all too common on campus. Conclusion: hippies got it goin on and everybody else should stop bein so fake.

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