Hippie Peer Pressure

 I like New Mexico, so far. I like the hippies and the weather and the scenery. I like the open-mindedness and the free-thinking. But, sometimes what seems like free thinking is just "group think", from another perspective. In this case, the hippie-new age perspective. This is the kind of place where what you do to help the earth is never enough. Sure, you take your glass, plastics and aluminum cans to the recycling center, but why aren't you buying in bulk and using your own containers, in the first place? I try to use my own shopping bags at the grocery store, but "don't you know that hemp is better? It is such a renewable resource. You should really be using hemp bags, Anne".  You need to drink more water, but "it needs to be blessed and put into a separate glass container and prayed over, before you drink it." Because I can no longer eat wheat, I feel a bit of a kinship, but now I won't be cool enough until I stop all dairy (unless it is goat's milk) and avoid all sugars. Must learn to like Stevia. And, try to use coconut milk or soy and honey in my coffee. Ha - that is never going to happen! No honey in coffee - that is a deal-breaker.

What I eat, how I purchase, where I buy, and how I dispose of things are all ripe for judgement from the clucking hippie tongue. In this altitude and climate, what I drive is less a topic of discussion than it would be in a larger metropolis, where it is much easier to get around. The hippies have resigned themselves to 4x4 cars and trucks because so many of the roads are not paved and are rarely plowed in the winter.

I know I am judging them by calling them hippies. Maybe I should just call them "locals", since I am so outnumbered. Perhaps it is just the regional mind-set. Also, I am easily prone to guilt and feel some self-reproach because I am not as self-reliant as they seem to be. They have been really, really nice to me and I don't think I would be ostracized if I never, ever changed my ways to fit into their ideal.  Hippies are much more accepting and mellow (perhaps due to the pot they smoke) than the regimented, uptight conservative Pennsylvanians I encountered. I think I exist somewhere in between these two.