John Y’s Musings from the Middle: Asheville, NC

Asheville, NC is cool.

Hip.

And Southern (albeit reluctantly).

A serenely hippie dippie college town that could easily take the NCAA regional title in meditation, woodworking, haute cuisine, energy healing, Frisbie throwing, and self-awareness if any were collegiate sports.

My phone camera isn’t functioning. Maybe it has dropped into the Asheville mindset and decided I should just experience the city instead of taking pictures of it, man.

And I agree.

Suffice it to say that it feels like Haight-Ashbury went to rehab and then was sent to a half-way house on the other side of the US and over time these Haight-Ashbury refugees found a way to make a sober-ish life while still honoring their eccentric individuality and pacifist world view. And learned how to make a contented community among themselves.

The inhabitants are not burned out but turned on(and aptly named their town Ashville) where they seek out (not eek out) an all-natural gluten-free, and gloriously Granola-fied life. To the beat of street musicians playing jazzy sounding bluegrass music.

I kinda love it. With soy milk, of course.