4:20 and possibly the end of an era

I know today is the big “pot holiday” and all but it’s just by coincidence that I’ve got something to say about it.

I absolutely adore several people that are regular smokers and I’m not coming down on any of you individually.  You’re adults and I believe you should have the right to smoke pot just like I have the right to have a shot of whiskey.  But I do have issues with some of the pot-smoking community.

First off, why the big deal on 4:20?  We don’t have a special day to celebrate heroin or liquor or tobacco, why do we always have to deal with 4:20?  And it always gives rise to some dink with diminished brain cells who thinks he’s clever by announcing 4:20 in a new way, usually on t-shirts.  IV:XX, 16:20, 00100:10100…  Yeah yeah, we were able to decipher your oh so secret code…

While I’ve never really been a partaker, I believe it should be legalized.  I probably won’t smoke it even if it were legal, but I don’t see why beer/cigarettes/liquor is legal but other drugs aren’t.  Legalize them all!  Let the people decide for themselves.  But come on hippies, you have to come off the whole “hemp” argument.  Admit that you just want to get high.  Stop trying to argue how it’s a better building material and all that shit.  It’s a good, safe, relatively cheap high.  And I’d back that argument.  I believe pot is safer than alcohol.  Not to say it never happened, but I haven’t seen the news telling me about a pothead causing traffic accidents, drunks are always doing that.  But it is currently illegal.  And until that changes, it will always be kept underground.

They say it’s a harmless drug but it has its harmful effects on people.  I saw it hurt someone this weekend and it may have contributed (in conjunction with a couple other events) to me and Teresa’s general feeling of, “I’m tired of this scene, maybe we need to think about packing it in and calling this done.”

Pot has always been a right of passage into the teenage years.  I have explained this to Becca and told her that she’d be confronted with the opportunity soon, if she hadn’t already.  Kids her age are discovering how to be “cool”.  So we go spend the weekend camping in the woods and Becca is excited because she found some new kids and they all get along.  That lasted one day.  She spent the rest of the weekend reading her book in our tent because almost every kid even remotely her age was in another tent getting high.  I was so proud of her for dealing with it but I was heartbroken to see her so alone.

She wasn’t pressured, she wasn’t intentionally left out, she was just the only one who decided not to ask for it.  No amount of incense covers that smell and eventually all the kids found their way in.  Given the source of the stuff, I believe that if she had asked for it, she would have been told no simply out of respect for her parents…  Becca has such a hard time during these camping trips because her two closest friends there are older and she gets left out of so much.  When she found a couple more girls to hang out with she was unbelievably happy.  Then it was all pulled out from under her.  It makes me want to cry.  She doesn’t want to go anymore.  I can’t blame her.

So from marijuana, we segue right in to the obligatory “end of trip” report.  It was fun.  I didn’t work the kitchen this time and we only made it out there on Friday-Sunday because I couldn’t take time off at the new job.  I had time to spend hanging out with Teresa and Becca, I drummed into the early morning hours and didn’t have to worry about waking up in time to make/serve breakfast.  We played games and hung out…  It was the festival experience I remember from before I became a member of the staff.  I saw a lot of people that I miss all year round and I met a few new ones that really made me want to know them better.  Teresa and I really had a good time for the most part.

But another festival attendee has a problem with Teresa for some reason.  I don’t know why, they’ve barely spoken but this crazed bitch keeps finding ways to make bitchy and mean comments to or about Teresa and it’s starting to piss me off.  Teresa isn’t going to take much more of it either.

And there was one unrelated outburst that could have happened anywhere but just happened to take place Saturday night.  Teresa is the sweetest person I have ever met.  When someone is hurting she wants to help but she also wants to stay out of everyone’s business.  She’s the most innocent person out there.  So when someone we love was hurting and sad, she mustered up an incredible amount of courage and tried to help.  This person responded by tearing Teresa’s heart out and spitting on it.  The only real word for what happened is betrayal.  Love turned to hate in a flash of lightning.  I’m not sure how long it will take Teresa to recover, if she ever does…  The next morning we are expected to be civil while everyone pretends nothing happened.  The bullshit got so thick we had to make a hasty exit on Sunday before we either blew up in nuclear rage or just broke down and cried from the pain.  Our sincere apologies to everyone we missed saying goodbye to.  We really wanted to spend more time with you but I had to get us out of there.

Teresa is being barbed on two sides, Becca is bored and ignored and I’m tired of trying to come up with reasons to keep going to an event that leaves my family devastated every time.  If it’s not drama with this person it’s with another.  If I stay I’ll probably be alone.  If I go, I’ll miss a lot of good people.  I’m not ready to make a decision but one has to be made soon.  I need time to reflect before I commit to my regularly rash judgments.

Keep in mind the Viking proverb: “Everything has an end, except a sausage, which has two!”