With all the current stories about “The Great Reset”, I decided to post a couple of my own experiences. “Doing your Own Thing” is nothing new and was a major part of the Counterculture (hippie) Revolution of the late 1960’s.
The Assembly Line
I had this super-Hippie friend from the poor side of the tracks (SW Philly) named Jimmy. He wasn’t in our Main Line (philly) crowd being that he was dirt-poor and not local. I may have met him in Atlantic City or through other Overbrook connections.
We were broke – so one day Jimmy said “Craig, there is a local place that is hiring…let’s go over there” – and we did. The place was named “Mailers Unlimited” and it was a mail fulfillment center. They distributed magazines and did direct-mail for companies, etc.
I worked there doing various tasks for one week. One example would be taking a stack of magazines off a conveyor and putting them in a strapping machine, pushing a foot pedal to bundle them, and then repeating. Another job was stuffing envelopes.
At the end of that week I vowed that I would never again work a “rote” job like that…and I never have! To a young hippie it was the very definition of hell. Just like pushing that rock up the hill which then rolls down. That week seemed like a year – and you can just imagine how bad it was if I still write about it now!
The Type A Woman who Thought About It
I did a 10 day silent meditation retreat in about 2002 – ours was for “leaders and executives” – which didn’t differ from the regular courses other than it was at a really nice facility in the Berkshires. 11 hours of silent meditation a day makes a person “go through some things”.
On the 7th evening we had a group meditation and a few of our peers went up on stage to express their thoughts. A woman walked up – she looked like a typical “executive powerhouse” type A, maybe 35 years old.
“I just spent the last week realizing everything I have done in my life was useless and fruitless” (or something of the sort – it was exactly what the Great Resignation type of mindset today is cast as”.
I don’t think any of this is new – but to me it’s a great thing if younger people reexamine (or examine in the first place) their lives and plan accordingly.
Jimmy, by the way, a dirt-poor Irish kid who did a bunch of Psychedelics and probably in normal times would have ended up either nowhere or gotten lucky with a Union Job, ended up going to Japan to teach English (he had zero qualifications and was very non-verbal!).
He fell in love over there and made a full life in Japan!
Now THAT is a Great Reset!
“Do your thing – do what you wanna do – I can’t tell you, who to sock it to”
“Dance to the Beat of a Different Drummer”
“White Collared Conservative – walking down the street, pointing your Plastic Finger at me. You’re hoping my kind will soon drop and die, but I’m gonna wave my freak flag high”.
