3/28- 31: A Weekend with Jack

The next to the last weekend in Santa Fe went as expected. Instant recall from September’s foray with Jack.

Jack is quite a character. He is now in his early 60’s and is an aging old- school hippie with long curly, graying hair. He still wears typically ripped black (always-black) denim jeans, and is lucky if he weighs 140. He is from the east coast originally, and still talks with what I define as a New York accent… complete with the New York attitude.

He was quite the activist, protesting the Viet Nam until some Pennsylvania rednecks fired some guns his way, got involved in the Civil Rights Movement, and even knew Jimi Hendrix, among others. Quite a remarkable history Jack has… great stories. He describes the 60’s in two ways: Pre 1965, and post- ’65. The “real 60’s” he implies happened before the Peace, Love, Dope era. He was involved in consciousness to some degree, and says it faded with mass- movement; when the hippies became pop- culture. Sound familiar, anyone?

Jack reminds me of the stereotypical troubled genius, and of Eric in a few ways, but is NOTHING like him beyond the fact that he likes to talk social issues. Jack knows his shit. He knows politics, finance, and sociology… with a depth and detail I have not seen since Michael Corbin. And, he can tie it all together. I was a bit skeptical in September, until I realized that many of the predictions he made have happened and our conversations have made me realize how hard of a “right turn” I have made ideologically.

His prediction for the future? Cataclysmic comes to mind. The future is never bright for a docile, compliant, unquestioning population, and history bears that out. It’s quite disturbinging how many of these so-called liberals, who were screaming about civil liberties not a year ago, have become “Political Chickenheads”, chanting, “Hope…Change...” in lockstep with their handlers. People get the government they deserve, and quite honestly, I am beginning to believe that it is over for you. When the government is trying to outlaw growing YOUR OWN FOOD complete with the Adam Sutlarian scare tactics, and the hottest topic is American fucking Idol? You deserve your cage, and so will the new generation of vassals bred not to think. For the rest of us? Well, we hear a lot from the Left about freedom FROM religion; what about freedom FROM government?

Although I suspect he would prefer another adjective, Jack is also a perfect case study in what has happened to the Baby Boomers, and how some of them exist in social Limbo; borderline hypocrisy. Sometime, in his own words, he realized that living his ideals was not going to sustain him into old age. As with my ex- landlord, Lawyer Bob, he talks lovingly about some aspects of the 1960’s, but was co-opted by a lust for money.

While Lawyer Bob openly flaunts his wealth (living in Christy Brinkley’s old home) , Jack loves to try to impress with offhanded commentary concerning how much rent he pays, what he paid for his truck, what a collectors piece is worth, etc., etc. He lives simply, but still loves verbally displaying his wealth as much as the person driving a Lexus does visually. Half the fun of knowing Jack is noticing his contradictions. He is very health conscious about the chemicals he puts into his body, which is VERY “Santa Fe”, but also still smokes pot…while deriding me for eating drinking Coke and smoking my Pall Malls.

Unfortunately, this move did not end on a positive note, and we each share some blame for this. Jack lacks people skills. I lack patience, especially now. I began to tire of his “interpersonal style”, and at the end of the day Tuesday, after the move was completed, I told him that he “was getting on my fucking nerves” and that I did not want to work more than 2-3 hours on Wednesday. This after a few rather loud displays of displeasure during the course of the day in response to his impatience and inability to convey direction.

Just like last year in the two weeks before I left, I have no tolerance for any perceived bullshit, and the fact that I was curious as to how Chris was coming along getting on the road Tuesday made it much worse. I tried to make it clear that I would still like to get together with him when Chris gets here, but I am not at all convinced that will happen!

Meanwhile, still no word from Chris about his departure since Sunday, and I was quite curious what was going on. We had a long conversation Sunday about the “departure philosophy” and how oftentimes the hardest thing to do on a voyage is... leave.