Cosmic Road Radio

The Silver Haired Hippie’s Guide to Creative Leisure and Living the Good Life.

A contemporary guide to getting old and making it count. By Jeff Otto 

What kind of a title is that? Aging Hippies, Creative Leisure? Living the Good Life? What exactly is the Good Life, and where can I get some?  

Let’s start with that “Aging Hippie” label. In fact let’s break it down even further… “Aging”.  Well I’m a baby boomer, just old enough to start collecting social security, and see some of my friends starting to fall to the wayside. Maybe its years of hard-living, could be genetics, or maybe it’s just that for some folks, it’s time for their number to be called. The point is, we ain’t getting any younger and rather than sitting around waiting for my number to be called, I want to make the golden years truly golden. Besides, 60 is the new 40. Yeah that’s what I’m talking about.  

Ok now for the “Hippie” moniker. If you are a contemporary of mine, chances are you came up during the 60’s. A time of change, a revolutionary time you might say. Our music, clothes, our hair, it was different and by the time I left college, even the jocks and eggheads were sporting long hair and smoking pot. Let’s use the term Hippie as an all-encompassing term to describe baby boomers who lived through an exciting and liberating time together. While some of us may have been a little more liberated than others, today we all get to enjoy the fruits that grew from the seeds planted by the progressive youth and counter culture citizens from back in the day.  

“Creative Leisure”. Seems pretty self-evident to me. But maybe it’s not that simple. I mean we’ve all heard or read, or even watched a movie about the bucket list. But how many of us actually have one? Do you? If so, is it realistic? Have you started crossing items off of it yet? Did you edit it back thinking it was too ambitious? Well I’m here to tell you “stop that shit right now”. If you try hard enough, you can cross everything off your list. Guess what? You can add more items to that list. It never has to be finished. We’ve all heard about the regrets of the man on his deathbed wishing he had done this or done that. Do you want to join him? Not me. Nope, not this guy. In fact, this book is one of my bucket list items. Oh yeah, and its something I’m doing in my leisure, and its creative. Well, well, how about that.  

(SIDEBAR: when I wrote that passage, I was sitting in my basement studio, drinking my 2nd hot buttered rum during a blizzard / nor’easter that was hitting us hard. While others used it as an excuse not to go to work, I hunkered down and got to work…being creative, in a leisurely sort of way, doing something that makes me happy.)  

Stay tuned for ... "It’s Time Bucko"