Normal

I Always Told Stories To My Kids When We Were Camping Or In The Car Or Any Chance I Could Get. Many Of Those Stories Were About My Life In The 60'S. For Me That Decade Was Not About Drugs Sex And Rock And Roll But Was About The Vietnam War Which Forced The Issue Of Morality On A Generation Of Us. The Word Normal Contains The Word Moral. I Think It'S Normal To Be Moral And In A Way That'S What The Book Is About: My Attempt To Live A Moral Life. I Pursued My Individual Idealism Through Composing Music And Found Ways To Survive Without Having To Give My Autonomy Over To Either The Government Or The Private Sector. By The End Of The 60'S I Had Lived In Two Communes Which Were Heavy Into The Drug Culture (Although I Wasn'T) Had Received Nine Draft Induction Orders Had Been In Jail Three Times For Minor Infractions Had Hitch-Hiked At Least Fifty Times On Trips Over A Thousand Miles Had Lived One Year In An Industrial Park Area Lived One Year Outside Under A Tree And One Year In A Fixed-Up Chicken Coop. Whether Living In The Counterculture World Of The 60'S Raising A Family Dealing With The Professional World Of Opera Companies Building Houses Or Looking At The World Through The Eyes Of Nicaraguan Campesinos I Have Tried To Continue That Basic Life Choice - To Live A Moral Life. And It'S Been A Wonderful Life. I Was Not A Rebel; I Was An Idealist Who Found Resources Within Myself In The Natural World And In The Dumpsters Of Society To Not Only Exist But Flourish.