THE NEWORLD FOUNDATION FOR INTERFAITH

I
INTRODUCTION TO PERSONAL RELIGION-AND-INTERFAITH

What is Personal Religion? Personal Religion is your significant beliefs and rituals. Personal Religion is what you and I do to live, and live to do. Personal Religion is what we follow devotedly.

Personal Religion may be based in part or in total on your special needs, interests, and abilities. Personal Religion may be based in part or in total on what happens to you when you are making other plans. Personal Religion may be based in part or in total on one traditional religion or a combination of traditional religions. My personal religion (S.M.C.) has elements of Judaism, Christianity, Zen Buddhism, Hinduism, and Islam. Personal Religion is what you make of it.

Personal Religion may be shared by a group of people or be unique to an individual. Personal Religion may be fixed or changing.

Personal Religion may or may not include a concept of God or Higher Power. “The fool said in his heart, ‘There is no God,’ but who is God save rock, the rock of my salvation that girdeth me with strength” sang the Psalmist. An Atheist can believe in the value of survival, happiness, the power of vitamins, science, nature, materialism, self-sufficiency, service to others, beauty, truth, justice, mercy, etc. An Atheist can have a personal religion. When John Lennon wrote and sang, “Imagine all the people with nothing to kill or die for and not religion, too, “he was being religious.

The study of Personal Religion is the study of Human life experiences. The study of your own life experiences may become a part of your Personal Religion. When people study each other’s Personal Religion, this study is the basis of Interfaith.

To this end, I want to share two different experiences from my Personal Religion. I’ve title the first experience, “Seeing a Group of Ghosts;” the second experience, “What I Learned From Ms. Sadie Citrin, My Home Room High School Teacher.”

SEEING A GROUP OF GHOSTS: In the mid 1960’s I was a Psychology Professor at Bard College, Annandale-on-the-Hudson, New York State, USA. I lived on campus in the basement apartment of the Albee Building. Sometimes I would invite my students to my apartment for a 6 PM class.

On one occasion, preparing for my class, I arranged the chairs in a circle. Then I sat down on the couch, which was not part of the circle, to rest. Suddenly, there was a person seated in each of the chairs. I knew immediately that they were not living people. They had to be ghosts.

I was frightened. I never had this kind of experience before. I blinked my eyes to make sure I was not hallucinating or deluding myself. There they were; sitting upright with excellent posture. They were all adult men. Each person looked different and was dressed differently. Their clothing was of a different period. I believe they were Indians.

There was something within me that wanted to enter mid-circle and explore our relationship more fully. I thought that if I did that, they might take me with them. I was not ready to go. I hurried to the exit door. I placed my right hand firmly around the doorknob and then looked back at the circle of chairs. Perhaps this whole thing was just a figment of my imagination. No, they were still sitting in the chairs. I then asked the ghosts mentally, “Why do you appear before me now?” I believe I received an answer mentally: “We were once living people like you. We want you to know that we still exist.”

I was too frightened to explore any further. I left the apartment. I waited outside for my students to come. When they arrived, we all went down to my apartment. The ghosts were gone. We had our class. Everything went normally. I continued to live in the apartment for about a year. I continued to hear strange sounds when I awoke at night. As far as I know, the ghosts did nothing to hurt me. I consider them my friends, and my teachers.

At the time I saw the ghosts I was not under the influence of any drugs. I have never tried any psychedelic drugs. I was not particularly anxious or fatigued. My vision was 20/20. I believe the ghosts were real.

Every human creation begins with a thought. I believe Mind created matter.

WHAT I LEARNED FROM MS. SADIE CITRIN, MY HOME ROOM HIGH SCHOOL TEACHER: Sadie was an unmarried woman who collected students to love. I was one of them. From Sadie I learned: Stand up straight. Do, don’t stew. It’s amazing that anything exists. If you are having a few good moments each day, you are having a pretty good life. Never say, “That’s the way it is.” Always say, “That’s the way I see it. That’s what it means to me.”

Sat or write your last name and individual differences will appear in your own family. Each person, each group of people, and the human species is unique. This uniqueness can be studied and enjoyed. We need to learn and to teach how to use this uniqueness in a positive, constructive, productive and creative way.
II
NEWORLD IS DEDICATED TO PREVENTING HOMEGROWN AND FOREIGN TERRORISM AND COERCION BY CHANGING THE CONDITIONS WITHIN THE PERSON AND CHANGING THE CONDITIONS WITHIN SOCIETY THAT LEAD TO IT.

There is nothing new under the sun. Did not the auto, the airplane, the spaceship, the submarine, the computer exist as possibilities before they were invented and became actualities? Did not science exist as a possibility before there were scientists? The same old simple truths may be experienced and expressed in a very large number of new or different ways. Is there any end to the number of different songs of love that can be created? Is there any end to the number of different ways the same old tree can be drawn, painted or sculpted?

How can humans create a world free(er) from deficiency, threat, emergency and coercion? How can humans create a peaceful world with abundance, co-existence, liberty, and justice for all? The answer depends on the kind of human relations considered.

THE HUMAN RELATION TO NATURE: It is almost a truism in our time that Man’s control over nature and nurture can come about only through the scientific process. Prayers, meditation and revelation may be a part of the scientific process, but cannot effectively replace science. Still, science cannot definitely answer the questions: Why is science possible? Why does anything exist?

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS: Humans have also used science and technology to build better weapons. Currently, hundreds of billions of dollars a year are being spent worldwide on offensive and defensive weapons. Obviously, this money could be spent improving childcare, healthcare, education, curing poverty, etc. This choice and possible consequences continues to confront our civilization.

RELATIONS BETWEEN GROUPS AND INDIVIDUAL MEMBERS: No human group can survive as the same group when individual group members are in conflict with group goals, values, norms, rules, laws or mission.

There are no easy answers for relations between groups and individual members. Corporations, for example, have found that opening lines of communication by brainstorming brings the business organization closer to Neworld conditions and is also financially profitable. Workers who can speak freely without threat have better morale, are less absent, less covertly destructive, more productive and creative than workers who feel threatened.

We are for opening up at least part of national TV, magazines, radio and major newspaper media for genuine free speech and free press; in prime time and prime space, on a first come first served basis, without editorial intervention. We are for all mass media socio-political communications being free and equally represented.
INTERPERSONAL RELATIONS BETWEEN CONSENTING INDIVIDUALS WITH SIMILAR GOALS AND VALUES: Good, happy interpersonal relations depend on the participants being in touch with their thoughts and feelings, and being easily able to communicate these thoughts and feelings to each other. These individuals will then find the right ration of separateness to togetherness for their relationship and their relationship will flourish.

INTRA-PSYCHIC RELATIONS: Intra-physic relations refers to relations between selves, beliefs and motives within the person, including relations between the “Me” and the “not-Me” (the “I” and the “not-I”). When the person feels threatened, intra-psychic relations may involve psychological defenses to reduce the threat.

The primary psychological defenses are denial, repression of thoughts and isolation of feelings. For example, we see these defenses working in youth violence in the school environment. Yes, there are lots of guns and violent entertainment productions available in America. Still, there are young people who are exposed to these conditions and don’t kill others. For the same reason, faulty relations between parents and their children or faulty peer relations cannot fully explain this violent behavior. Therefore, we have to look to relations within the person for the answer.

The individual may be denying repressing thoughts and isolating feelings of common humanness. Surely, I can feel almighty by taking the lives of others and my own life. I don’t do it because I allow myself to feel reverence for the vulnerability of the living; reverence for the struggle of the living to survive and fulfill themselves, even under difficult circumstances. These kinds of feelings are denied, repressed and isolated in the youth who are violent in the school environment.

Some other psychological defenses are: Rationalization, Displacement (from one motive to another, from one object or subject to another, from one behavioral means to another), Projection, e.g. falsely attributing one’s own motives to others, Identification and Introjection, Reaction-formation or representation by the opposite, Regression and Overcompensation.

Social Scientists and non-scientists may disagree about what constitutes psychological defense.

We believe there is no end to knowing thy self and thy world. Gladly should we learn and gladly should we teach.

NEWORLD RAP: The Lion and The Lamb, The Leopard and The Ox, The Bear and The Bee, The Chicken and The Fox, The Blind shall see and The Deaf shall hear, The Lame shall leap and all shall sing: It’s good, it’s good, very, very good, to live and love. Let live and love. I ask not why, why, why, why, why. Sanctify, Sanctify. Man, man cometh from dust. Man, man returneth to dust. Like a dream he passeth away. The Lion and The Lamb, The Leopard and The Ox, The Bear and The Bee, The Chicken and The Fox…

IMAGES OF LOVE FROM A SONG OF LOVE (words based on a poem by P.B. Shelley): The fountains mingle with the rivers and the rivers with the oceans. The winds of heaven mix forever with sweet devotion. Nothing in the world is single. All things by law divine. In one Being meet and mingle. See the sunbeams kiss the earth. See the moonbeams kiss the sea. What are all these kissings worth if thou kiss not me?
III
A STORY OF HUMAN DEVELOPMENT TOLD IN A BRAVE NEW WORLD

In the 20th Century there were theorists who believed that the fetus’ relation to the womb environment was pleasureful nirvana; being born was traumatic. Soon, in normal infant development, the child’s entire skin surface became eroticized. The child was pleasured by being touched and by touching. The child was pleasured by being played with and by playing. Normally, the child was pleasured by using all its capacities: seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling, recognizing, babbling, moving, pushing, grasping, effectively transacting with the environment.

Pleasureful experiences also became focused on the erogenous zones of the mouth, the anus (with the development of anal sphincter muscles around the age of 2), and the genitals (beginning around the age of 3).

Normally, along with the pleasure there had to be a little frustration sometimes. From the beginning of life the child’s cry was unpleasant to others. During the Oral Stage the child’s frustration was likely to be expressed by regurgitation; with the development of teeth, the child’s frustration could be expressed by biting. Anal expressions of frustration, as negative resistance to toilet training, were bombing and soiling. Genital Stage “Castration anxiety” could be expressed by hitting, kicking or worse. This aggression could be displaced and directed at anything or anyone, including ones self. Childhood fears and phobias were common.

The male/female distinction could lead to real or fantasy coalitions with the family: son and mother against father, son and father against mother, daughter and father against mother, daughter and mother against father. Bi-sexual alternation, inner conflict and role reversals, e.g. the child assuming a parental role to parents, were possible. When there were siblings in the family, a variety of other coalitions and rivalries could occur.

From childhood to puberty through adolescence, the child normally had experiences with playmates, schoolmates, peer friends, and significant adults other than parents. All of these significant experiences could later affect the adults’ sexuality and Personality: The adults’ capacity to trust (or distrust) others, the adults’ competence (or incompetence) to influence others, the adults’ ability (or inability) to love and care for others. The child learned (or failed to learn) limits, controls, responsibility, respect for the rights of others. The Child either became socialized or sociopathic.

In the 20th Century this development of the individual took place against a background of tremendous social and technological change: from Puritanism to the gender and gay rights revolutions, to the stranger than fiction evolution in the technology of sex and birth control. Suddenly, chemicals could stimulate a male’s erection, women could become pregnant by artificial insemination, eggs and sperm could be frozen for future use, embryos could be implanted in a uterus, cloning was possible. The meaning of “marriage and family” became controversial.

There were those who yelled Foul. Others kept exploring the seas, the heavens, medical and non-medical technologies, genes, social behavior, psychodynamics, searching for the best possible society; evolving toward our Brave New World.

Whenever this story was told in the brave new world, the storyteller and the listeners would end by chanting: “Negated negation is affirmed affirmation. Accepted acceptance is simply, Have a good time. The negative lives for the positive created.”

IV
THE TWO SIDES, SYMBOLIC OF ALL SIDES, IN BALANCE, UNIFIED AND INTEGRATED

The following samples, each in its own way, deliver a similar message. They tell of two sides in balance, unified and integrated.

THE CLASSIC ISLAMIC MOSQUE: The Classic Islamic Mosque with its round dome and rectangular base symbolizes the perfect balance between the two sides: Heaven and Earth. Likewise, the Classic Islamic Garden is designed to reflect the perfect balance between the two sides: Natural spontaneous growth and the restraint of external environmental requirements of form.

THE CROSS: A horizontal east-west line intersects at with a vertical north-south line. Implicit in the crossroads of balance, unity and integration of the two sides is the possibility of dangerous collision.

THE SIX POINTED STAR: Two triangles, one upright and the other inverted, overlap midway producing a six-pointed star. A skeletal version of the six-pointed star can also be constructed by rotating the cross to an X and drawing a vertical line through the center of the X.

THE GREEK LETTER PSI: A line is drawn through the center of a U, thus dividing the U into two parts. When Psi is inverted, this symbol of psyche and psychology has been used as a symbol of peace.

THE MULTIPLICATION TABLE OF THE NUMBER NINE SYMBOLIC OF “LIFE”

1 X 9 = 09----------0 + 9 = 9
2 X 9 = 18----------1 + 8 = 9
3 X 9 = 27----------2 + 7 = 9
4 X 9 = 36----------3 + 6 = 9
5 X 9 = 45----------4 + 5 = 9
6 X 9 = 54----------5 + 4 = 9
7 X 9 = 63----------6 + 3 = 9
8 X 9 = 72----------7 + 2 = 9
9 X 9 = 81----------8 + 1 = 9
10 X 9 = 90----------9 + 0 = 9

Note the properties of inversion and unity. The crossing in the multiplication table of the number nine takes place between (9 x 5) 45 and 54 (9 x 6). Each value in the first half has an inversion in the second half.

THE SCALE OF JUSTICE: The two sides of the scale symbolize the Plaintiff and the Defendant. When the two sides are in balance, there is Justice.

THE CADUCEUS: The Caduceus is used as a medical symbol. Two snakes are intertwined around a staff. The two sides are in balance when healing cures illness. The wings on top of the staff symbolize medical help coming to cure illness.

THE YIN-YANG SYMBOL: A circle is divided into two like parts, usually by an S shape design. One side is covered in black while the other is white. A small white circle is in the black area. Diametrically across from this white circle there is a small black circle in the white area. When the polarities of black and white are mixed, they form a neutral uniform gray.

THE INFINITY SYMBOL: When the archetype M for Man (convexity) is placed on the archetype W for Woman (concavity) and they intertwine (like the snakes of the Caduceus), they form an infinity symbol. In the infinity symbol, M and W are in balance, unified and integrated.

THE SWASTIKA: The Swastika is an Old Persian symbol, which has been used by the Nazis for evil. Two Zs, one vertical and the other horizontal, intersect, as does the cross, to form a unified integrated whole.

Indeed, Democracy is based on two sides, symbolic of all sides, in balance, unified and integrated. Humanity too has two sides: Commonality and Individuality. Terrorism threatens democracy and humanity.

Terrorism is a political statement. Terrorism is rooted in the belief that might, in fact, makes right; the belief that life is a deadly power struggle. In the non-human animal world the bigger and stronger eat the smaller and weaker. Terrorism is the way those who feel small and weak can at last feel large and strong for a while.

Terrorism is also a psychiatric statement. Terrorism is a psychological high: a defense against detachment, alienation, helplessness, hopelessness, depression. It is a transformation from passivity to activity.

How can a person be prevented from becoming a terrorist? We believe the answer is, “Put something more satisfying and fulfilling in its place.”

Healing requires a therapeutic other, a therapeutic community. The Person and Society are two sides of Mental Illness and Health.

There is a role for mental health workers of the 21st Century to assess snuffed out deprived needs, interests, abilities, talents, visions, dreams of positive, constructive, productive creative becoming, and to recommend and create non-toxic healthy nourishing environments as well as positive, constructive productive creative job, school and play placement.
V
MEDITATION ON GROUPING (INTEGRATING, UNIFYING) AND DIVIDING (SEPARATING, INDIVIDUALIZING)

Humans are born with some protective reflexes. They are born with no survival instincts. Humans require others to nurture and protect them at birth. This is our earliest social-economic grouping. Normally, humans exist in a physical-chemical-biological-social-political-economic context. To some extent individuals are controlled by the forces in that context. The question is not: Are we controlled? The question is: What is the best form of control for the individuals who are being controlled.

Grouping is more than environmental and social. We perceive, think, act and physically function holistically. Nine randomly placed dots presented rapidly will tend to be seen as three groups of three dots. Millions of people are grouped as “male,” “female,” “old,” “young,” “American,” “French,” etc. Going to the grocery store normally is not a series of individual discrete responses. The human body must function as an integrated systemic whole to be healthy.

Grouping also involves dividing. The three groups of nine dots have a degree of separation from each other. Going to the grocery store is different from doing the tango or playing basketball. Males are different from females, young different from old, and Americans are different in some ways from the French. Though normally our bodies function in an integrated way, there are different parts and processes of the human body that normally function antagonistically, e.g. the flexor vs. the extensor muscles of the arms and legs, expansion vs. contraction, incorporation vs. expulsion, anabolism vs. catabolism, the central nervous system vs. the autonomic nervous system, the right vs. the left hemisphere of the human brain.

Mature humans have the capacity, at least in imagination, to separate from (transcend) and change their past physical, chemical, biological, psychological, social, political and economic conditions. The human capacity to separate from the past and view the past historically as a whole, even without being able to change the past, is the reason why hindsight is often considered to be 20/20.

There are only three general basic ways humans can resolve their differences peacefully: (1) Resolution by grouping (integrating, unifying); (2) Resolution by dividing (separating, individualizing); (3) Resolution by combination of the first two ways.

Examples of resolving differences by grouping: M. Gorbachev’s reason for pursuing a treaty to limit nuclear proliferation, “Human life is no less precious when it is American than when it is Russian.” In times of war Americans minimize their differences between being Democrat Vs. Republican, Conservative vs. Liberal, and focus on coping with the enemy as “Americans.” An example of resolving differences by dividing: Each individual American state, not the federal government, has the right to create their own policy dealing with education, welfare, pollution, addiction, etc. An example of resolution by combining (1) and (2) above is waiting-on-line-for-your-turn. The line may be based on a first-come-first-served principle or on a random lottery principle or in any other way perceived as fair. Everyone gets a chance to satisfy their needs, but not at the same time (or in the same place).

In other words, there are a limited number of ways humans can resolve their differences peacefully: (1) Voluntary separation, (2) Negotiations and bargaining, (3) Creation and appeal to a norm or normative system, e.g. appeal to an authority or arbitration; appeal to a custom, rule or law.

Grouping, Dividing and Identity: Dr. Eugene Hartley, a Social Psychologist, invented three fictitious groups: The Danerians from Daneria, the Wallonians from Wallonia and the Pinerians from Pineria. He found people who hated the Danerians, the Wallonians and the Pinerians. They attributed negative traits to these fictitious people. They were threatened by anyone outside of their social grouping. We believe this defensive potential, to some extent, is in all of us. It may be reality based. Within-groupers are less likely to hurt us than outsiders, strangers and foreigners.

In the mental illness called Multiple Personality the person is threatened by foreign selves within oneself. The Multiple Personality dissociates these ego-alien selves. The various selves are unaware of each other’s identities, actions and experiences.

Normally, humans are capable of and are aware of playing different roles in different situations. We observe this capability when the little girl plays mommy and the little boy plays daddy. In normal adult life the same person can assume different roles in different situations. For example, a male medical doctor may be a teacher when he supervises interns, a student when he takes a seminar outside his field, a husband and father at home, one of the boys in his athletic club, a patient in his dentist’s chair or when he is being examined by his own doctor, a son in his parents’ home, a motorist on the highway, a customer in a shoe store, a fan at a ballgame, a client in his lawyer’s office, etc.

Identity may contain information about a person’s roots, core beliefs, social group belongings, inheritance, investments, ability, expertise, credentials, possessions, powers, status, duties, rights, and privileges. In this sense, identity may become a territory to protect and defend.

Normally, we are also capable of enjoying movies, plays and novels because we can put ourselves in the place of others. Normally, humans are also capable of exploring various selves within their Self.

This ability is required for Interfaith.

VI
HYPOTHESIS: THE KIND OF BRAVE NEW WORLD WE BECOME WILL DEPEND ON HOW TWO HUMAN SPECIES SPECIFIC CAPACITIES ARE ACTUALIZED; NAMELY (1) THE CAPACITY FOR WILLING SUSPENSION OF DISBELIEF AND (2) THE CAPACITY FOR TRANSCENDENCE AND TRANSFORMATION

The capacity for willing suspension of disbelief enables us to put ourselves in the place of others, to experience and appreciate the world from the other’s point of view. It enables us to empathize and to sympathize: “I do not ask the wounded man how he feels. I become the wounded man.” “Any man’s death diminishes me.” “Our group, right or wrong.”

The capacity for transcendence and transformation enables us, at least in imagination, to separate from and to change our past physical, chemical, biological, psychological, social, political and economic conditions. It is the ontological basis for all forms of therapy and humanly initiated progress. This capacity enables us to be “objective,” task-oriented, not ego-involved; to analyze, criticize, propose alternatives, create experiments and evaluate results from different perspectives.

Each of these species-specific human capacities also has potential pathologies.

The potential pathologies of the willing suspension of disbelief are, e.g. uncritically following suggestions, uncritical imitation, uncritical identification, uncritical conformity, uncritical merging, allowing ourselves to be conned, hypnotized, mesmerized or addicted when these behaviors lead to harmful consequences.

The potential pathologies of the capacity for transcendence and transformations are, e.g. distancing, detachment, seeing the forest but not the individual trees and leaves, reducing emergent wholes into component parts or destroying emergent wholes, loss of empathy, and sympathy when these behaviors lead to harmful consequences.

We believe there is a need for mental health workers of the 21st Century to learn and to teach “a hovering awareness;” how to be a part of it and then be apart from it. Our Brave New World will depend on it.

VII
TOWARD SOCIO-ECONOMIC EQUALITY: A SOCIO-ECONOMIC CLASSLESS SOCIETY WITHIN NATIONS AND A SHARING OF MONETARY AND OTHER RESOURCES REGULARLY BETWEEN NATIONS IN ACCORDANCE WITH INTERNATIONAL LAW

We believe that socio-economic frustration mixed with existential frustration, e.g. lack of clear meaning, identity, self-esteem, rootedness, belonging in the universe, purpose, venues of self expression, direction, fulfillment for one’s life, make people vulnerable to Frustration-Displacement. It is one side of the various forms of destructiveness to self and others which plague our world

The other side is learning and teaching groups and individuals from childhood how to take responsibility for their behavioral choices, exercise self-control, respect the rights of others, and respect their own rights for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; with hotlines, help lines, assessment services, placement services, counseling services and social support systems readily available.

The mission of human fulfillment is to reduce the Craziness that is harmful to self and others and to direct human energies towards positive individual and societal fulfillment. The mission is to match the fulfillment of positive individual needs, interests, abilities, talents, visions and dreams to fulfillment of societal requirements. The mission is to achieve a balance, unity and integration between fulfilling positive individual person potentialities and fulfilling societal requirements.

This is an Islamic mission as symbolized in the classic Islamic mosque and classic Islamic gardens. It is also a Judeo Christian mission.

To fulfill this mission on earth we are for establishing a United Nations Army of helpers and healers from all walks of life. This army of helpers and healers will lead us to make holy war against human destructiveness to self and others. They will lead us to be creative-and-constructive.
VIII
PUBLIC PSALMS OF A PERSONAL RELIGION

PSALM I: Sight stretched long is touch to light fluttering leaves on branches of branches like birds in flight. Fish fins flap in waves of song. Imaginary Companion, you were here all along; though net fleeing butterfly moments, near from far, lending earth, air, fire and water. We are the plant of your delight.

PSALM II: The frame of our experiences is our lives. Our bodies are the way Allah plays with Himself; Changing bodies at boredom while the ocean remains the same; Filtering experiences through each other; Creating the frames of our lives.

PSALM III: Having heard tales of right hands speaking to left, left legs to right, tops to bottoms, sides to sides, I was practicing in meditation. Then I imagined a flower implanted in soil. I shrunk myself in imagination and slid down the sieve. Suddenly, a fountain spraying champagne celebration. I looked through filigreed leaves; the lace of trees. I saw the creation as a fireworks festival of lights in the night. I learned to fight for my right to life.

PSALM IV: Who is responsible? What is to blame? Choice, chance, or fate, his hers, or their type or trait, heredity, biology, society, individuality psychology, mama and paper, will of Allah? Your pick is your trick; your own carrot and stick.

PSALM V: “Snatch the moment” is a misnomer. The moment you catch a bubble: Burst! Watch it by letting it go. Have it by letting it flow.

PSALM VI: There is pleasure in congregation; finding oneself by losing oneself.

PSALM VII: A person, a life of the living, on earth to find a prayer, to sing a song, hopefully a song of love, do a dance of life, not alone.

PSALM VIII: We’re just two kids (like Tom and Huck on the Mississippi) lovin’ and fightin’, watchin’ TV. When the king is naked, the king can’t fake it; no matter what the politicians say. Children will lead us in play.

PSALM IX: Leave well enough alone. Don’t tear asunder what is made whole. Rock and roll and role. Are the best mended fences our defenses? Is it better to go out of our minds; come to our senses? We’re Home.

PSALM X: Far journey to near site. Near sight is insight outside.

PSALM XI: Can you see infinity in a grain of sand?

PSALM XII: the dot expanding became the circle. Centrifugal! The circle contracting becomes the dot. Centripetal! Inhale. Centripetal. Exhale. Centrifugal. “The Big Bang!” The Breath of God.