Hippies linger on

A lonely old hippie sat scoping the action in Miraflores park. A fine Cuban cigar would hit the spot right about now, so JJ approached Stephan, who swept us off to a cigar shop, selected three choice "banana" cigars (about the size of little golden bananas), clipped them, and handed them over for a careful wrapping, each in its little plastic bag.

Stephan knew everything about Peru. Well, he has been here 4 months (and speaks no Spanish) and knows only 2 spots -- both night clubs in Miraflores. We then went to sit under the yellow umbrella to sip some liquid refreshment and people watch while Stephan delivered a non-stop monologue. Been everywhere and done everything in his 55 years, but clueless about life. He confessed to me how he despises his life, disillusioned, burned-out, nothing left to live for.

I remember feeling that way in Ecuador in 1973 -- age 31. This is the end of the hippie trail. And people are still treading that trail.

I did make a few cryptic comments during the monologue without effect. I know what Stephan needs to do now, but he can't be told. He got where he is without listening, why start now?

I read the book of Ecclesiastes and found my way back to my Father. Stephan is still a lost soul -- very, very lost as I was. My Father is patiently waiting for him to come home but, like many of us, Stephan is too proud to ask for directions.

A ghost from life past, he demonstrated for me what I would have been like had I continued on the hippie trail another 24 years. Even though I took a new route in 1973 I was still searching for meaning, and in many ways still as confused and as filled with self-loathing as Stephan. Until I began this latest journey last August.

For most of my life I assumed that there is a secret to life and that everyone knew it but me. In October (after my wife asked me to leave) I discovered that I have known the secret all along, and everyone else is still looking. The vexing part is that I cannot just let people in on it. I thought that the secret was how to construct a successful self and relate to other selves. Everyone else has always seemed to know how to do this but me. But I was wrong. The secret is the destruction of the self so that I have become my Father's son. Does that make any sense to you? Unlikely.

So Stephan plummets down the hippie vortex to destruction, drivin by the very thing that needs to be annihilated, and can't see that it's either self or life that will soon die. I hope he makes it. I wish that I could make him see. But I can't. It will take more than I can do to open his eyes so that he is able to see, and only He who made Stephan can do that. There is no "secret;" the Truth is all around us, even as you read this post. Open your eyes and you will see it too!