sharp words for peaceful people

i guess i havent been paying attention lately, to where i am and who i am around.

i sat down for lunch with my roommates at the lotus cafe. we live in leucadia, the beach and hippie district of encinitas, california. we have a shared living arrangement that has been calm and easy for almost three months, but i have avoided these sorts of meetings. i have avoided these meetings because i dont believe in astrology or acia berries or the invisible healing auras of crystals and organic cheeses.

my landlords wife, a sweet and cheerful girl, handed me a gift as soon as we sat. it was a slice from a crystal embedded with minerals and stuck to a piece of double sided tape.

"its for your phone"
i didnt understand.
"let me see your cell phone"
i handed it to her. she unpeeled the tapes cover and stuck the piece to the back of my phone.
"now you won't get cancer. the positive energy of the crystal pulls away the negative waves, keeping your brain safe."
i thanked her, but i dont think my face matched my words.

my landlord is heavily into yoga. i dont mind this, it looks helpful and he seems nonjudgmental of his wifes practices, while holding to the pure physics of his exercise. it keeps him limber for his daily surf at swamis beach. swami means master or teacher in hindu, above the beach is the ashram where he learned and studies meditation. he is a great median between everyone in the house.

the new girl replaced rob. rob was a drunk and a pothead and a genius with sports stats. i cant believe it took them a year to kick him out, nice guy. he had a threesome with some cokehead girls in our all natural hot tub. i dont know what makes our hot tub all natural other than it has no chlorine, but i miss the chemicals, that burned clean feeling that seers into every pore. the new girl would have hated a chlorine tub. it might have cleaned the fucking bushel of hair under her arms or drown the crabs i imagine fester in a messy jungle below.

she is offended at everything- tv, clothes, meat, food in general, baby raising practices, anything that doesnt start with green and cant be purchased at trader joes. she is a single mother, she has no job and takes two classes at the community college. who supports her? how can she afford similar rent to myself? i have no idea. i wished the restaurant served veal or something cruel to animals, but eggplant was the meatiest entree. it was ok.

i like the earth, i joke some but i like animals too, really, i dont have anything against driving less and think solar energy could solve a lot of problems for us. but fuck. come the fuck on. fuck.

i nodded and smiled, bit my lip and stayed. i dont suppose this new religion of being green and organic is anywhere near as dangerous as the christians and muslims, but i dont see them really putting up a fight either. it doesnt seem like the 60s version of these people won, it doesnt look like they will either, but still, it cant be worse.

people need to buy into something. some sort of cause, crystals or witches or gods in clouds, its easy to stop wondering and start following. wondering is dangerous, rationality as well, raising questions the worst. i guess i didnt put up much of a fight, fuck me, stopped at wendys on the way home to get full as well.