No Palliser meet for our CLEC yesterday. Herman called to cancel it on account of the weather, which is a first for me. I phoned three others to let them know.

On Saturday I visited with John and interrupted Annie’s watchings - TV and computer - with an hello and then a good buy! Els and I talked for about an hour. She is doing ok and there is a newly born second nephew on Okkie’s side for us. No official word as yet to me.

Last Friday I did write, but did not post; had lunch with Herman, had my car in for an oil change, tire fix and check up and Harper’s washed my car. Thank you guys.

I also visited Sharen in the afternoon, but conversations remain a bit halting compared to the old days. Sharen seems to be always preoccupied when I come to say hello, but she is always appreciative of the time that we spend chatting and talking.

On the way back I stopped by at Staples to buy some printing paper (HP!) and I splurged on a new mouse pad for my desktop. It has a hard surface, which lasts much longer that the old cushy ones and it has a nice pattern, but almost twelve (12) dollars would you belief. I bet there is a much better margin on these pads, than on a computer!

I did make some progress on my design for the talks catalogue page. I am now at the proto type stage. However today will be dedicated to Elisabeth’s report, if and when she shows up.

On Sunday I coloured an other part of my Mandala of Integration as I now have decided to call it. I am now half way with having completed the fourth of eight sub designs, but that still is not half way with the whole mandala. I will include some images for clarification.

The laundry is going again and at 8:50am I have a reload. I am aiming for just two loads this time around.

The cancellation of our Sunday meet gave me a chance to spend some time on my ideas for the planned April talk. Some interesting ideas presented themselves once I started to concentrate on the theme of ‘the significance of the human experience’. The whole process took several hours and I am still working on it. However, enough has formed to make a few statements of outline. This will have to be done after I switch the laundry loads.

At nine (9) am the new load is due in forty minutes and Elisabeth left a message that she will call at around eleven (11) am. So, I now continue with my contemplation description.

Concentrating on the mentioned theme of human experience, I moved from the familiar to the new and more daring as follows. My familiar notions - the familiars of the shaman?! - are that ethics have been discovered by humans over time, with experience. Also the idea of beauty is one of human perception, as is ugliness. Of late, I have been adding the idea of ‘order, to this. Humans have discovered order in our world of experience. But we also know about disorder, just as we know about the earlier referenced ethics - that is ‘good and evil’.

Next comes the notion that order comes from a creator of that order as is described in creation narratives. Did this creator then also create the disorder and what about the origin of evil? It is considerations like these that can be accommodated within the concept of the mystery of existence, which I have called ‘Existence Divine’.

Within this ‘Existence Divine’ all that exists is accepted as such, but is subject to human discernment, such as we are capable of making. The latter is based on our acquired ability of consciousness and ethics. These are some of my earlier notions.

Yesterday’s new part was that the sum total of our human experience, findings and discoveries are a contribution to .Existence Divine’ from within the realm of human experience. That is all our deeds, action, inventions, discoveries of culture, science, technology and yes religion, are products of the human way of being and are unique in their own right. They add to the range of existence and its possibilities, and it is us humans who are discovering how this can be done , should be done, enriching Existence Divine with our contributions.

Such a view also implies the responsibility that we must exercise as to the nature of such contributions. And, as we look around in our world of today, we know that this is not a simple matter of just doing the right thing. We are facing a severe challenge, but not an impossible one as we may judge from our record as humans over the many millennia behind us.

The struggle is evident, but so is ‘success’ albeit with setbacks, retries, misjudgements, contrivances and worse. My position is that all this must be taken together as the way we are, continually on guard and aiming for what we think is best. This discovery process is our way of being human beings.

One crucial question then becomes, as to what it is that each one of us is trying to contribute as an individual and we together as a society of humans on this integrating global culture! Terms, such as passing muster and due diligence come to mind, as I think about formulating a reply to the posed query.

The second aspect of my contemplation is what the meaning is of the ‘god-image’ in our human religious traditions. There are many such images, so what is the significance of them, knowing as we do, that their importance is beyond question? This I am still working on, but I am not looking to dismiss these images, but rather discover their value and functionality. Once that is known we may be able to identify similar concepts and notions in our society today, which may lead to a better understanding of some conflicts between people holding differing identities and belief frameworks.
<9:42am; and 10:46am with laundry and editing~