The Free Spirit

The Spiders, 1967 (Part Three)

"The crooked faces of clocks appear and die in nightmare dreams..."

"Oh, but the spiders are everywhere!" said I to a crowd of protestors in a park in downtown Los Angeles. "Spiders... I do mean spiders. What are spiders besides eight-legged arachnids? They're not insects, that's for certain, but they've got beady eyes that stalk their prey, but do both good and bad. In Hopi faith, the Spider Woman is the goddess of the earth and she created the first living creations, along with the Hopi sun goddess, Tawa. In some African cultures, the spider is a trickster god called Anansi, and he stirs up trouble and mischief. He is Vice of the Everyman plays of medieval times. What is the point of my discussing spider myths here with you today? I know that I often sound as if I am against the government, but I am not. I come from a government that is flawed, yes, but it does do some good for its people. The government and its people are like spiders, sitting on their intricately-made webs both stalking their prey, and protecting others from harmful or otherwise irritating pests. But the government is flawed. In my heart, my hopes for change by millions lay twisting as they burn. Women are not weak. People of colour are not inferior. Those who wish to love freely as many others do are not sinners. And yet, the spiders are everywhere."

I spoke at a peace rally in downtown Los Angeles hoping against hope that perhaps the right person would hear my pleas for peace and love, but they fell on deaf ears. I could preach about equality all I liked, but I knew that it would take time before any changes would even be considered, let alone made. It was 1967, the year of the Summer of Love, the year of peaceful movements and the year of battles for social change. In January alone, America was introduced to the Summer of Love through the Human Be-In, which was a gathering of young kids being brought together for nothing but love and fun in San Francisco, and the Mantra-Rock Dance, which was a concert with similar goals of the Human Be-In, and another Be-In followed in February in Los Angeles. In April, ten thousand people marched against the Vietnam War in San Francisco, and even larger scale demonstrations were held in the likes of New York City as well as San Francisco. Race Riots broke out all over the country, started by African Americans who were sick and tired of their voices never being heard before. War pushed on, because according to the government, North Vietnamese forces were refusing to back down. The likes of Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix emerged onto the scene, and the famed tribal love musical, Hair opened for the first time in an off-broadway theatre in New York City. In October, I joined protestors in a march in Washington D.C. as we listened to Allen Ginsberg chant to 'levitate' the Pentagon. The people of America were becoming restless in the year 1967, and things were escalating quickly.

But my domestic life still went on. Little Jason spent his first birthday in California, while Don and Phil were very shortly on a break. Don and I weren't really involved, but we did send him a little teddy bear for his first birthday gift from us. We had our own plates full with our two school-age children and our sassy little Maggie, who liked to run around the house causing headaches left and right. But we enjoyed every second of it, because Don and I very much loved our little girl, even if she did have some rather unconventional ways of thinking. "Maggie, you cannot walk out of this house wearin' your shoes on your hands, honey," Don tried to explain to his stubborn younger daughter.

"Yes I can! Watch!" Maggie spat back at him, and she toddled towards the front door barefoot with her shoes on her hands.

"Maggie, honey, Daddy doesn't want ya to step on somethin' that might hurt your little feet!" Don tried to reason with her, but she wasn't having it.

"They're my feet, Daddy! I do what I want with them!" Maggie shouted at him, and Don just simply put his face in his hands. Maggie certainly was a handful, but she was fun to be around. I smiled as I watched the pair of them, a father and his toddler daughter, as I folded laundry on the couch and glanced down at the laundry basket in front of me.