Escape the Okie Zone

I'm excited about the video "Sherman's March" coming in about this man's historical documentary "evolving into an improbable search for love". I need to see if I can show it to Muffy as she would she the similarity between this man and me. It is so amazing that I have been thinking about how this website could evolve into a movie also. There have been so many funny things happening in this story. I like to think of these types of coincidences as signs from above. I feel that the spirits that are wanting to guide me are telling me to do this. Muffy badly wants me to get a laptop so that I can easily download pictures and film from the camcorder that I'm investing in. I have not smoked anything yet today, so I am completely sober in this vision.

I woke up to another beautiful gorgeous day just begging for me to go outside and enjoy it. I can feel love and hope in the atmosphere on a crystal clear warm day in December. I feel that there is hope for humanity and that I have a purpose to let others see the meaning of schwagstock.
I was reading from theschwag.com message board about what Zen Ken had to say about the meaning of Schwagstock, "so many people are looking for a truth that does not often demonstrate in mainstream America." This is a beautiful place where we just park our cars and walk everywhere. We leave behind the worries of civilization and listen to the music of nature. Everyone is smiling and helping each other out. It is such a pleasant change from being around the killing machines that we call automobiles. There are many communities sprinkled throughout the world that coexist in a peaceful nature. Folks are not angry and yelling at each other. They are filled with love.
They are not caught up in the rat race and the rampant commercialism as most Americans are slaves to keeping up with the Joneses. They don't determine a person's place on the pecking order buy how much money they make or can throw around at bars. They are free to talk about anything without fear of someone intimidating them with violent words or physical harm. We realize at Schagstock that peace. love and especially understanding are far more important for the evolution of mankind and it's survival than material things that we cannot take with us when our souls leave the confines of our shells.

I am excited about this movement that was blossoming at the height of the Vietnam War and seemed to be disappearing is coming back. Most young folks that I talk to feel this same way. They are looking for a rebirth in this feeling. I would like to make a documentary about this peaceful revolution that will only grow stronger as we eagerly look for a peaceful resolution for another crazy war with no meaning other than more cause for more hatred and violence for generations. There are many that want to find a peaceful place to live away from the restrictions of want the greedy capitalists are forcing us to do. We can find another place where there is no warfare. We can let the violent religious fundamentalist fight amongst themselves until they realize that killing is not the way to get to heaven and reach that higher level. Maybe we can find places that are far away from all this religious hypocrisy and the nuclear bombs that might be dropped on the small confines of this planet. In the meantime, the peaceful people can find other places that do not buy into war, violence, materialism and wasteful pollution.

I hope that this website and documentary will be able to record this movement that will be a peaceful counter revolution to what is happening to this very angry bipolarized nation.

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To me, Schwagstock has become much more than a music festival. It is the place where people come to be with others of like, kind heart and mind. For many who come there, it will be the closest they will ever come to experiencing what it was like living in the Sixties. And what was it like growing up then? Everyday there was news of how the youth movement was making positive changes and touching people in all walks of life. It was the first time in history that the adults had lost touch with what was real and it was the young people who had the moral high ground. It was we who demanded more freedom, more equality, more fairness in society for all people and for a time it felt like we were winning. It was a sparkling time when young people all over the world were seeking the answers to how to become the best person they knew how to be. We were all actively trying to become righteous without knowing were to look for answers. Much of what we learned came from the music of the time. There were life lessons hidden in lyrics our parents did not understand. But we did, we listened and we put those lessons to work in our lives. That is what it meant to be a hippie.
Today, so many people are looking for a truth that does not often demonstrate itself in mainstream America. That is why I feel it is vitally important that those of us who remember, work to keep Schwagstock as pure and honest and as real as we know how. It is important that we actively strive to be patient and kind to each other as people did in the Sixties and therein is the secret, the key to why the Sixties are still spoken of and looked upon as a golden time. It was the vibe that was created by a whole generation that announced that materialism is not what matters in the world. Material things will just rot, wear out, and fall apart. What really matters and what will sustain you are Peace, Love, and Understanding. It is all of us coming together in peace and appreciation that makes Schwagstock almost what it was like to live in the aformentioned, golden time. Anyone who does not acknowledge the spiritual component at work when thousands of people come together in this way is missing the whole Schwagstock experience. That is why Jimmy keeps reminding us to focus on the music. In those lyrics are the life lessons we can all learn and recreate, if only for the short time that we are together, the vibe perpetuated by the Grateful Dead. In this way we keep the Music and the Dream alive.
So what does Schwagstock mean to you . . . ?

Edited by Zen Ken - Aug 26 2003, 11:58 AM "