To day I wanted to write fore sure, since it is the last day of my being 78-years of age, to use the view from the approaching the rise of 79, to look back a bit.

First my immediate activities, one of which was last night taking in Shakespeare's ‘The Tempest’ in the company of Shirley - now Sophie - who had suggested it. We used to go to Shakespeare in the Park put on by Mount Royal Collage at the time. They changed their venue and our lives fell out of cadence on it. Now these open air shows are back under the auspices of Theatre Calgary.

After the show we enjoyed a beer, shandy and some fries at Barley Mills out on the patio still at 10pm! Such is our weather right now! Shirley cum Sophie gave me a ride home and we’ll meet for tea on my birthday.

Tomorrow John and I will have dinner and then we’re off to see ‘Mikado’ at the new opera venue in the East Village. The weather is turning tomorrow, so we’ll make sure the car is near by.

Last Monday, Jack and I met for a birthday lunch at the ‘Farm House’ or Kaffa House of days gone by. We were a bit late as Jack’s birthday is in April, but we stuck to our tradition, be it just barely. The venue was no success on account of the supplies and the street noise. Lunch with Herman today, but that is a regular one and not a birthday event, but who knows?!

Good luck son, I have all the confidence that you will make significant contributions and be successful.

Last night Derrick had left a message that he was all done with his studies for a Masters in Psychology, which marks the end of a five year long journey that started with his move from Salt Spring Island to Victoria for that purpose. A midlife switch of much significance and daring too I may add. Good luck son, I have all the confidence that you will make significant contributions and be successful.

To look back a little further, I now live in this place since 2004, making it eleven years. This is longer than we lived as a family on tenth street and equal the years I lived in Toronto from 1959 to 1970, starting as a landed immigrant.

Those were transforming periods and I now ask myself: ‘What has transformed in my life this eleven year period?’ It has been one entirely contained in my retirement, which started in 1999. I did not set out on this last journey with a goal such as a career or family. But, I did after an initial period of housecleaning you might say, which lasted for about four years.

…I now ask myself: ‘What has transformed in my life this eleven year period?’

I want to elaborate on this discovered goal a bit more and will do so under “Writings”, since the content will be quite religious and philosophical I expect and not be anecdotal of the process.

I’ll start with my first talk on September, 4, 2004 for the Calgary Life Enrichment Centre [CLEC] titled “What did the Gnostics know?”. This appeared at the time to be just a one off event. I had read quite a bit in the Gnostic writings living in my home town of Zeist, NL from late 2001 to the fall of 2003. As I related this to Herman during a lunch in the spring of 2004, he suggested that I might do a talk on this topic.

Two weeks ago I completed the 37th talk titled “Body & Soul. Made in Africa”, completing a long journey of studies and talks all of a religious cum spiritual nature. In these presentations the world religions shared the stage with Fundamentalism, Ancient Civilisations, Spirituality, Planter and Hunter traditions, Tolerance and Existence Divine.

This long journey, which started in1999 has now come full circle with the mentioned and most recent talk of African religions. It comes full circle since the Gnostic traditions were centered in Egypt - Nag Hammadi Library - a country and civilisation on the continent of Africa.

In this my journey too, has come to a close, with a message for a way forward in our contentious global society. It is that we must learn to tolerate each other in the different ways we express as humans. I say LEARN, because it is a value that must be taught, acquired and practiced. This is a process that religions have used since humankind formed its first ideas about its own experience.

What we need to learn is appreciation for the otherness of the other and how that enriches our human world tradition within the frame work of Existence Divine.

What is new for today is that this tolerance needs to be practiced among the different human traditions and not just within them. Each tradition is unique, but not so exclusively. Neither is it shared, though there are aspects in common.

What we need to learn is appreciation for the otherness of the other and how that enriches our human world tradition within the frame work of Existence Divine.
11:30am~