LETTERS 

The state of California was on the writer's mind. It had moved him with its stimulus and experience and called forth from the writer a concomitant need for knowledge. Wild open nature! Fly free of the gravitational pull of the east. Stay wealthy and powerful.

The wild and open state of affairs always brought the writer back to the question, 'what is civilization?' Even though many laughed at him he persisted and further asked, 'what is human nature', and even, 'what is the destiny of human life?' Rather than laugh my fellow creatures, why don't you see the gift these excellent questions permit the spirit of freedom? If you asked these questions you'd discover that reality is always hard. That reality stepped up through technology creates difficulties.

The writer tried to break the hypnotic spell that reality wove from time to time. He stared into the airport crowds and the freeway traffic and the malls and saw the heaviness of reality. Was it any different than the crooked, crowded towns of the fabled past? Was it different than the stone walls of the degraded city? Was it any different than waking in the morning to see the crows eating your fields? Was it any different than seeing the people escaping from the advancing armies?

Every influence and window opened to a rich latitude. The people could dissolve and reappear like the gods of old. They were not gods. To reach the connecting tissue with God people had to surrender their pretense to godlikeness and become servants to the market, the family, the community, the political arena. They were the new agents on behalf of the humbling God.

The young Californian made this proposition. 'I don't want your fame and fortune; I want your freedom. And I want your freedom to work out the healthiest destiny I am capable of.'

David Eide
October 6, 1999
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