I came upon a child of god.
He was walking along the road.
And I asked him, where are you going?
And this he told me,
I’m going on down to Yasgurs farm.
I’m going to join in a rock and roll band.
I’m going to camp out on the land.
I’m going to try an get my soul free.
We are stardust.
We are golden.
And we’ve got to get ourselves back to the garden.

— Joni Mitchell’s “Woodstock”

And Target is hoping that the half-a-million strong find there way back to their nearest store and stock up on some nostalgia in the form of beach towels, candles, mugs, picture frames and of course replicas of the original posters.

When the brightly colored picture frame caught my eye I was thinking this is pretty cool.

I love the logo with the chubby white dove perched on the neck of a guitar. “Maybe my sister Janet would like this.” (who was in fact a bona fide hippie).

Then I realized how ridiculous it was. This is what we have come to or should I say this is where we are still at forty years later?

The almighty buck. Countless inexpensive merchandise made in China. Let’s relive the summer of love and say how much can we charge for that “trip” back.

Many of those sweaty people at that farm in Bethel, New York truly believed in a different way. A way in which consumerism wasn’t king, and there could be real peace on Earth, an Earth that we take care of instead of abuse. Some I’m sure was just looking for some good pot and definitely some amazing music. Woodstock was a time in history that as much as we would like we cannot recreate. It was (forgive me for using an overused term) an organic shared moment.

According to one article Michael Lang, one of the original promoters, doesn’t want anyone else to do concerts or festivals celebrating the 40th anniversary of Woodstock. even though he hasn’t exactly gotten it together to have a 2009 Woodstock himself. (see the New York Times article) So make sure your have Lang’s permission to say words like “peace” or “love”  this summer…and you may have to pay for it too.

Lets really try to find our way back to the garden and think about where that $5.99 frame came from. Check out the Story of Stuff video.

During Woodstock Joni Mitchell dreamed she saw bombers riding shotgun in the sky and they were turning into butterflies. Now forty years later we all wish the bombers were beautiful butterflies, but no such luck. You know they paved paradise and put in a parking lot (for a Super Target so you go and buy a hippie costume.)