Glad to know the Hippies are still around

[Tegwedd ShadowDancer]

Those of us who were in the counter-culture of the 60s have become Pagans and hang out on the Internet. In the 60s I had mixed feelings about the flower children of the late 60s going into the early 70s. I liked taking showers and baths, still do. Why is it that as you age the site of your chief pleasures changes from the bedroom to the bathroom? Taking a good dump and following it with a shower and self-grooming session can improve the tenor of your whole day. They do for me, anyway.I also liked having money and nice things. I just couldn't get into the whole communal thing. My things are my things, and that's it.

I couldn't get into polyamory either, not really. I tried it, trying to be very progressive and all that. I had read Robert A. Heinlein's books, and thought he had some really great ideas, but in practice, I could see that they didn't really work. I had seen too many relationships and marriages fall apart, and one constantly teetering on the edge to believe that polyamory could be anything but a pipe dream. So when Doc suggested we have a closed relationship several years ago, I readily agreed.

When I was I college, I wrote a paper in Spanish about the connection between the Romantic movement of the 19th century and the flower child ("hippie") movement of that time, which was the late 60s. My friend Barbara Frederick said I was more like the Bohemians of the early 20th century, which was when Uncle Al thrived. What I really related to was the colorful and romantic clothing. I didn't really go for the dirty tee shirt and tattered jeans. What I liked were the Edwardian velvet jackets and ruffled poets' shirts of some of the rock stars.

But in the 70s I went for the preppie look, since I had to work. My tastes in straight business wear is still pretty classic. I like styles that'll be around for awhile. Back to the hippies. My house-mate and partner-in-crime, Stephen Abbott, still acts as though he's still in the 60s a lot of the time. A hippy with a computer; can you think of a more dangerous combination? A hippie with a nuclear missie. That would be even more dangerous.

The counter-culture really seems to thrive when we have really despotice lousy presidents. Ywo cases in point: Nixon and the two Bushes. It's really too bad that nobody sees that but me. I first saw it in 1968. It could almost make me vote Republican. Just think how the counter-culture could've thriven if John McCain had gotten in.

And I want to thank all of you for going to http://wwwfiredrakesweyr.com/ and doing a search under my nom de plume Rita Trevalyan. As you know, two titles came up: Takuhi's Dream and Roman Rhapsody. Takuhi's Dream is a Young Adult (for ages 13-17 and those adults 18+ who do not fancy erotic material in their fiction) SciFi novel about a young professional woman who is being pursued across the galaxy by a monster she cannot face, and by two men; one who clearly means her ill, and the other--well you know because you bought a download and read it, but we shan't tell the rest of them, shall we? Roman Rhapsody is the story of a wealthy middle-aged woman in a state of ennui who is having disturbingly erotic dreams about a matron of ancient Rome who is having an affair with a gladiator. Will Olivia manage to find a project worthy of engaging both head and heart, or will she succumb to the temptation of acting out her erotic dreams and fantasies with a modern gladiator? You bought one download--what the heck-- you bought both, thus helping a deserving writer to realize a long held fond dream of being a real published author.