Pan's Pastures

We are stardust, we are golden
We are ten billion year old carbon
And we got to get ourselves back to the garden

Having just returned from my summer home this past Memorial Day Weekend in Roscoe, N.Y. located in the beautiful Catskill Mountains, I am reminded of these lyrics from the song Woodstock written by Crosby, Stills, & Nash. They were written in the aftermath of the Woodstock Music and Arts Fair that took place from August 15-18 1969 in Bethel, just a few miles away. Some say close to 500,000 people came to that festival over the course of those four days. The festival took place on Max Yasgur's alfalfa fields. I doubt the alfalfa was responsible. I'd like to think it was Pan, or even perhaps Dionysus, who long asleep, summoned the masses after being awakened. Pan after all was the god of shepherds and flocks, mountain wilds, and rustic music. A son of Zeus, his worship began in the mountainous region of Arcadia. He like to play the flute, and was said to inspire fear in people as they traveled through lonely places. Hence, today we are said to experience panic anytime we are extremely scared. But over time, Pan got a bad rap. Being half-man, half-goat, he was an easy target. Bye, bye Pan. Hello, Satan! I guess the hooves did him in, pushed to the back of the closet like a dusty pair of platform shoes. Dionysus, another son of Zeus, was the god responsible for shedding the skin of our normal selves through madness, music induced ecstasy, and even wine. Could it be that Pan and Dionysus were brought back to life on Yasgur's alfalfa fields that August? One thing I am sure about is that there's nothing quite like being surrounded by the beauty of nature when it comes to making more bearable the hectic pace of modern day society. Let's face it, we've all entered the rat race with no idea how we've even become rats, how far the destination line is, or if the race is even worth running. Henry David Thoreau dropped out, took a detour, and went to Walden Pond before he was passed his first plastic cup of Gatorade. While there he penned the lines, “I went to the woods because I wanted to live deliberately, I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, To put to rout all that was not life and not when I had come to die Discover that I had not lived.” Now that's something no amount of electrolytes can provide. So let's get back to the garden. While we never know what we may find there, we sure could use it. There's no need to panic... just keep your eyes open for the first patch of alfalfa you can find.