Hippy Slop Philosophy

We use the best organic, wholesome foods, but when we put them all together, it’s a goopy, soupy slop. And if you haven’t cultivated a taste for healthy wholesome slop, it is unpalatable. But for those who have expanded their palate to include a little dirt mixed with greens and bone broth, it is quite good. Better yet, we feel good after consuming it.

Here is the hippy slop philosophy - if we learn to appreciate the wholeness of bad and good mixed together, we feel healthier for it.

Eat it, Hippy!

Americans are strivers for perfection in ourselves, our relationships, our lives, our country, and the world. Yet, if you haven’t noticed, we always fall short. It is a law of nature. Let’s call it the life slop. Nothing is ever completely right. There may be times it feels close to right, but there are always strings of funk that trip us up. Damn it.

If we can relax and accept that no matter what, the world, our lives, and ourselves will always have an element of badness, then we can explore the wealth of complexity that is life. Look at the forest, it’s beautiful with down trees, clogged streams, mud, and mold. That’s life. That’s also being human.

Snails having sex

In ourselves, we have an outer self in which we show to the world, a mask of our values, but under that is a grumpy and disheveled feeling of inadequacy and frustration. Believe it or not, this is our true selves - an ethereal spirit coming into a physical body that is confined by this demanding reality grows layers of grumpy frustration like decomposing leaves.

The irony is that we continue to fight the slop. We want a clean and pristine self, life, family, and world where everything is as we wish it to be. We want to fix it. But even when we get it all perfect, it becomes sterile and unsatisfying. That’s why most rich people are unhappy -because they have everything and yet they still feel empty. Repressing our dark side makes us flat, shallow, and dull.

It’s when we let the chaos of our misery, sadness, and frustration break apart our mask that we begin to color our lives with creativity, wholeness, and tears or sorrow and joy.

My point about America is that we are so bummed out about how it is right now, and there is a lot to be worried about, however the pendulum will swing, and then straight people will be irate about the Liberals.

As one conservative talk show host said, “There will be no real elections, you won’t be able to tell a girl from a boy, and the dogs and cats will be fighting in the streets.” (I’m not sure how he forecasted the dog and cat thing, but whatever.)

So, we will never be totally happy, unified people. If our well-being is contingent on whether our values are manifest in our world, we will always be adrift in disappointment and sorrow because it’s going to be a clash of values in the life slop.

Giving ourselves permission to be messy, let our living rooms be messy, accept our imperfect family and our f*ked country and this world of crap and beauty is how we will find freedom right now. If we get used to life slop, even embrace the slop, we will fare much better as we move forward into an even messier and more complicated future.