The Word Psychedelic

The Word Psychedelic

     It was the Spring, Summer of '65, something like that (it feels like it was 50 years ago, which it was.) Anyway, it was before my thyroidectomy in August, 1965. Bill Zapf and I had been selected by Mr. Farley (the W.H.S. History teacher who had coincidentally given me a copy of "None Dare Call It Treason") to attend a Foreign Relations Conference in Washington, DC sponsored by the American Friends Service Committee. I think you can sense the irony here. However, I am not going to dwell on the conference aside from the fact, it was interesting and very engaging, though the truth be told I was more interested in searching out record stores for the latest Beatles release, "Beatles VI". Oh, and Bill and I really thought it was a gas flying in a Caravelle jet (engines in the rear!)

   We had the opportunity to visit the French Embassy, I think the Russian Embassy (or that may have come from an episode of "The Americans"), the State Department, a visit to the House of Representatives. We met in study groups to revisit the events of the day. One of the most engaging conversations was at the State Department regarding Soviet-Sino-American relations. The point of the conversation (1965), and the premise of presentation was the Soviet Union posed no great threat to the United States (3 years after the Cuban missile crisis). The Soviet Union was trending toward United States values and the United States was trending toward Soviet values, hence no real threat, which was reassuring. The point of the presentation was the real threat was emerging in China. The leaders of China, it was said, were very patient in birthing power and engaging strategies with the West, which would ultimately wrest power from America, in several ways; primarily economic, though. You can be the judge of that; (Made In China).

   So what does all this have to do with the word "psychedelic". Well, one day during the Foreign Relations conference, on a side trip to Georgetown (more on that below), I visited a head shop, something new to me. I bought three (3) albums and a button. The button was an amalgamation of colors. In bold was the word "Psychedelicized". I thought it was so cool. My friends back in Ohio will have no clue what it means, and I would have ample time to figure it out myself. Much later,I gained a greater appreciation when I listened to the Chambers Brothers "Time Has Come Today," and discovered the lyrics: "I've been loved and pushed aside, I've been crushed by the tumbling tide, and my soul has been psychedelicized." Wow, my soul, my inner being, my personhood had been psychedelicized, and I didn't even know what it meant or how it happened! 

  Fast forward to the Summer of 1967, Danny Wells and I were listening to music in his living room. One album was the Association "Insight", the other was the Grateful Dead (Self-Titled). As we listened to "The Golden Road (To Unlimited Devotion)," I carefully studied the album cover (above). Many images, lots of eye candy, varied expressions, colors, different themes, all-over-the-place, loosely coordinated; you think about it, it mirrors the personality of a person living with ADHD. Why, there you go! My "psychedelicized" button accounts for all my disorganized behavior these many years, and why I lost my American Express travelers checks spending an entire day in Georgetown getting them replaced, and why I was late to most of my meetings. All because my soul was getting psychedelicized.

DJ & Bill Viewing our Airline Tickets to D.C.