Monday, March 15, 2004
No Hippie Chicks....
It's just a song lyric - I'm actually rather fond of hippie chicks, having been one to a rather large degree myself when I was younger. But there's this small faction that I've encountered - what I refer to as "granola" - nuts & flakes, baby - nuts & flakes.
Ran into a gal at a pot luck the other night whom I'd met once before. (We'll call her "Mary.") I knew Mary looked familiar, but couldn't figure out where I'd seen her. She looks like the quintessential hippie girl - tall, lanky, long, blonde hair down to her waist - no makeup, homemade clothing and a sunshiny smile. And she likes to talk. Which is cool, 'cause I'm quite a talker, too. But.....
It's the things that came out of her. "Yeah, I have two kids, and my older boy was going to the local Waldorf school...until he got kicked out...." Things like that - which, if they came up in conversation, would be one thing, but this was in her (10-minute) personal introduction of herself as we went around the circle and told everyone who we were. So, then - it sparked - do you know (this friend of mine)? I asked her. "Oh yeah! I'm going to her baby shower tomorrow," was her reply.
Then - it struck me. I'd met her at that same friend's wedding two years ago. She'd just had a baby - a waterbirth - and me, being the baby-snuggling type I am, cooed and talked with her about it. During that conversation, she pulled another one of those weird sentences out - which I've started to call her "nightmare-before-christmas" discussions. It went something like this:
Vi: Oh! What a cute little girl! What's her name?
Mary: This is Grace.
Vi: She's so sweet! How old is she?
Mary: She's 6 months old. I had a homebirth with her. A waterbirth.
Vi: That's so cool - I've always wanted to attend a waterbirth. I'm a doula.
Mary: Really? I loved the doula I had at my birth. (We discussed who her doula was, as I knew her).
Now, at this point, we start in the usual banter of "how long was your labor....are you breastfeeding, etc." You know, mommy-talk. In the middle of it, she says,
"Oh no - I don't have a social security number for her. The government doesn't even know she exists."
Vi: (puzzled) Why not?
Mary: I refuse to let my children be governmentally institutionalized. They'll force vaccinations on her, make her go to school and teach her what They want her to know. It's all bullshit. They might as well bar-code us all.
At this point in the conversation, I politely excused myself. I understand the idea of home-schooling your children and such. I even understand the idea that someone (many people, in fact) don't want to have their children immunized, considering the recent research that shows some immunizations may lead to neurological impairment. But government conspiracies concerning one's children? Sheesh. I really don't think the government is so focused on getting its incorporeal hands on her little hippie-girl.
Then again, maybe I'm wrong. Maybe Bush really does have a secret pact with aliens.
Maybe the mother-ship is coming back to get her any day now......
Yeah, yeah - judgemental, I know. But it just goes to show you - sometimes the paranoia lasts far beyond the last toke.
DivAdjudicatingly Yours,
Vi
