Saturday, April 11, 2009

Frost: Waters, Rewriting Gravity At Harbin, Hippie Youth



Frost

There was frost
on the sleeping deck
this morning
when I awoke
at Harbin.

The waters were so
warm and nice
after the cold
of the morning.


*

Harbin, especially the warm pools, does interesting things with gravity. Beyond water making bodyminds feel lighter, Harbin's warm water, and particularly its beautiful, warm pool, its clothing-optionalness and the milieu in general create a kind of inner buoyancy, in my experience. Its roots in counterculture which inform Harbin's milieu rewrites a kind of metaphorical gravity, too. Things in counterculture were somehow reversed, turned upside down, seen differently, - this includes, for me, gravity at Harbin.


**

Counterculture continues to fascinate me in the way that it shapes bodyminds. I have a teenage friend at Harbin who has really long hair, hasn't gone to school that much, and is really alternative in the way he sees and thinks about things. This way of being has just emerged in the fabric of his life in California, and because his parents, I think, are really understanding, and gave space for this way of being. I don't see that many young people in California growing up these days as hippy kids, although the youth movement in the 1960s and 70s found epi-centeredness in California. And many kids in California and on the west coast of the U.S. seem to be familiar with hippie ways.


***

There's so much to learn and think about at Harbin, it's time to make headway with writing, so I can explore more new things. It's a complex place with a pretty long history in its current form.


****

Time, too, to build virtual Harbin.










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