I plan to leave my summertime parking space in
southwestern New York State and hit the road later this week so now is a good
time to get a blog out. Since the last
posting there has not been a lot going on but it has been fun watching the
critters as they wander through the campground, some of whom are shown
below. I did drive to Columbus, Ohio to
attend a Michael’s birthday celebration; another day I visited the Chautauqua
Institution with two nieces. Let’s get
started.
The quotations are from the section we studied as part
of the Columbus gathering.
Even on normal evolutionary worlds
the realization of the world-wide brotherhood of man is not an easy
accomplishment. On a confused and disordered planet like Urantia such an
achievement requires a much longer time and necessitates far greater effort.
Unaided social evolution can hardly achieve such happy results on a spiritually
isolated sphere. Religious revelation is essential to the realization of brotherhood
on Urantia. While Jesus has shown the way to the immediate attainment of
spiritual brotherhood, the realization of social brotherhood on your world
depends much on the achievement of the following personal transformations and
planetary adjustments:
Social fraternity, intellectual cross-fertilization, ethical awakening,
political wisdom and spiritual insight. Urantia Book (597.3 – 598.2) (52:6.2 - 7)
Michael’s Birthday,
Columbus, Ohio
As the photograph shows, it was a joyous group that
gathered in Columbus for the birthday celebration. It is such a joy to meet these people,
interact with them, share a meal, study the epochal revelation and even enjoy
some casual guitar picking. There were
four more that had a previous engagement and arrived after the picture was
taken. The pot luck lunch included a
variety of foods; there was even a fancily decorated cake with a candle that
kept relighting itself.
As part of the study session we divided into groups to
discuss each of the adjustment techniques listed in the quotation. One question posed to the group was why the
revelation itself was not listed. It is
not there because the revelation cannot perform any change on society as a
whole, rather it does the transformations one individual at a time; it is the
persons that are so transformed who move into society and initiate the
necessary changes.
Chautauqua
Institution, Athenaeum Hotel, established 1881
One fine sunny Sunday two nieces and I visited the
Chautauqua Institution, located not far from the campground. When the institution is in season there is a
worship service in the open air amphitheater Sunday mornings; the day we
attended the speaker was Rev. Cynthia Hale, who is the founding and senior
pastor of the Ray of Hope Christian Church, Decatur, Georgia. She gave an entertaining and inspiring talk;
the theme of her message was “Don’t go tripping.” There is no need for drugs to alter
consciousness but the sermon was broader that the title and was well received.
After the service we walked (the streets are too narrow
for a lot of cars) to the Fire House for a chicken barbeque dinner that we took
back to the fountain in the center of the grounds. They had nice red tote bags for the first 100
customers; naturally we were number 101, oh well. We were able to enjoy the food while watching
the people and taking in the sights of the beautiful grounds. Following that there was a concert by several
barber shop quartets in the amphitheater; it was billed as being a parade, but
how can you have a parade when they were standing on the stage? It was a glorious day altogether.
Turkey
Time!
When parked for the summer at the
Hidden Valley Camping Area near Jamestown, NY, the table where I generally sit to
eat and work the computer overlooks my birdfeeder and the beautiful trees of
southwestern New York State. It is a joy
to watch the various critters that go past, tending to their daily
activities. In case you are wondering,
the aluminum plate on the post is to discourage chipmunks from climbing up and
stuffing themselves silly with bird seed.
By the way, if you get grass when you plant grass seed, what do you get
when you plant bird seed? This summer I
have seen red squirrels (see below), grey squirrels, black squirrels (but I
understand they are really not black squirrels, see Wikipedia for example),
deer with fauns, skunks including a large pretty one that was mostly white,
woodchucks, turkeys and various other birds, including three types of
woodpeckers. There may not be many Urantia Book readers in the area, but it
is certainly a glorious part of our beautiful planet, Urantia.
Red Squirrels are
devout
When seeds fall from the feeder, the squirrels and
other animals like to scrounge underneath.
I have no idea what this red squirrel was trying to do, but he kept
doing it, several times he even fell over backward. The only thing I could think of was that he
picked up a sunflower seed from the ground and was trying to get the food out;
anyway it was interesting to watch.
If you could be
transplanted from your backward and confused world to some normal planet now in
the postbestowal Son age, you would think you had been translated to the heaven
of your traditions. You would hardly believe that you were observing the normal
evolutionary workings of a mortal sphere of human habitation. These worlds are
in the spiritual circuits of their realm, and they enjoy all the advantages of
the universe broadcasts and the reflectivity services of the superuniverse. Urantia Book (598.3)
(52:6.8)
All blog photographs are by
Doug Cable unless otherwise noted.
