Bohemia

Deep in the heart of Bohemia, surrounded by people from all over the world, I had a thought. As I looked around I saw the beatniks, the hippies, the strangers, the flappers, the punks, the flannel wearing grunge people, the hipsters. The people who make up the "counter culture". You know the people I'm talking about, the artists, the musicians, the authors, the dancers and the poets. The colorful men and women. The people who have weird hair cuts because the thought of being the same as anyone else does not satisfy them. The people who live a life of passion, the people who make love to themselves every time their imagination begins to spin and they can create something from nothing. The people who are deep into a lifelong love affair with their own talent and creative evolution.

In Bohemia, these people stood around a bar listening to a band play while they sipped on hot apple cider and Ecuadorean liquor. We were all here for open mic night, and the sound of Spanish folk music filled the bar and the hearts of these strange people.

The funny thing is though, in my world the idea of a counter culture is backwards. These people are the majority aren't they? My world is full of the wanderers, the dreamers, the artistic, environmentally aware liberals, and the counter culture is made up of the people still fighting facts and advancement. I don't know any young people that don't worry about the fate of our planet.

Are we really the "others"? Or are those people, the ones following orders and forgetting to think for themselves, are they the ones that are truly different? I think the people who have chosen to live a passionate life as opposed to a comfortable one are the normal ones. The humans world wide who question what they are told and reject what the world expects of them in order to think, they are what evolution intended right? Those who care more about the little things than giant piles of money. We are in the majority, right?

There i was, watching an artist make love to the microphone. She was Proud of her passion, engaged with her process, and it was so beautiful. Her entire body moved as she sang the words of a love song. Her face alive in pain and pleasure as she used her whole self to tell a story to a room full of strangers. A giant smile ripped it's way across my face and all I could think was "here I am, and for tonight it is where i belong". Yet then I began to think of just how many Bohemias I have seen, how many like minded friends I have made. How many young people I have met who know that the world needs to change. One day we will be in charge, one day we will have the chance to change it all and Cuenca Ecuador was just another place filled with those of us who hope to be the change that we need.