Sandalwood

Sandalwood is a perfectly imperfect society, founded on love and only love. It was born in a coffee shop, from the spoken words of a few beatniks and the *tha-thump* *tha-thump* of their bongos.

At first it wasn't as much a place as an idea, a dream. The hip cats and the riff-raffs, they knew what it was without ever needing to know where it was, or where it would be. They built the villages, one word at a time. They built the sandy pathways of the market place, one beat at a time.

Sooner or later all these kids crying revolution, all these future guerrillas, all these freedom fighters figured out that there's a big wall called "Put up or shut up" that all lofty ideas crash down on. The sell outs sold out, stocks in souls go cheap these days, anyway. The bandwagon lost a wheel, and all the oxen died. The weak ones trailed ass back to town, leaving nothing but the strong ones behind.

Kids with long hair and a long history of struggling with the man, founders of Sandalwood. Sons and daughters of the revolution who found religion by killing their God, founders of Sandalwood. Sandalwood was once just an idea, but there were a few who made it a place.

Artists, musicians, hackers and painters. People who believe the only crime worth punishing by death is ennui. Yes, once, Sandalwood was just a folk tale, told to the college lot with their warm espressos and cold hearts, in hope that they'd melt a bit. Most didn't but a few did. A few couldn't help but let go.

Signs flew up around Yale, then around Columbia.

"Hey smart kids, do something groovy. Sell off all your property and buy back your souls. Follow us to Sandalwood."

Two weeks go by, then fifty kids meet for the first time ever at Penn Station, waiting to board a train heading west. Between them they've bought 250 acres of land in the middle of nowhere, USA. Between them, they've sold off everything except for a backpack filled with a few days clothes and miscellaneous sentimental artifacts.

I'm one of those kids. You think I'm on vacation, but I'm really gone for good. Don't worry about me though, It'll all work out okay.