For some of us hippie-counterculture-artistic-thoughtful-out-of-the-box type people, it is a journey of acceptance to visit our families. It’s like putting on really tight cloths that we used to wear as kids but now, we don’t fit in that reality anymore. Squeezing into the short answers and tight rhetoric, some of us decide to just let our parents have it. We speak up - calling out the bullsh*t that turns into the carols of fighting and festive food fights. Although, some of us nod our heads and smile trying to get through the capitalist-consumer-unconscious conversations, then we go home and cry.

When we are immersed in our hip-and-groovy micro communities, we get a false sense of hope that humanity is indeed changing for the better. But when we go outside our own circles, we are reminded that are doomed - the human race is just going to pollute this lovely planet to death leaving behind a thousand little plastic containers. The rats and cockroaches shall inherit the earth.

There might be a few survivors - hippie farmers and indigenous people who live close to the land. We can only hope it will be so, for a sane future to prevail. But we must be careful with this fantasy because every self-righteous group thinks they are going to be the ones to survive the inevitable collapse – the Mormons, the Christians, the Muslims, even the scientist think they are going to create artificial bubbles of paradise with technology -the very technology that is creating all this mess is going to fix it, like with AI police and genetically modified food.

In this time of deep reckoning, when the stars are bright to remind us that the universe is vast, we must try to take a wide-angle view of things and accept this crazy world as it is. Acceptance is an easy word to say but hard to do. Sometimes it feels fake or like we are selling our souls to Wallmart. Take heart my fellow freaks! Acceptance is not just for the pansexual, crossdresser, snake-lover that only eats avocados’; it is also for the straight, polyester-santa-sweater-wearing, cat-lady who only eats spam.

Yah Happy Hannakawazamas! Or for a true Earth-loving-tree-hugging-pagan - Merry Solstice. After the holiday we can take our presents of plastic appliances, polyester socks, and artificially scented soaps to the thrift shop, bless our families - we love them, and pray to the Earth-Goddess we survive another year of insanity, pollution, and square relatives.