There is much anguish in peoples’ hearts at to why

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this long suffering befell them. We live in a world that believes in sense and order and suffers when that order cannot be perceived.

There were many signs and portents before the Death and the wars. It was an apprehended trend seen by many for a century or more before its occurrence. There seemed to be nothing anyone could do. It felt, said those who passed on their stories, like an avalanche that could be heard but not seen, thus not allowing one to change its course or get out of its way.

You feel such a sense in your day, of changeless forces gathering for a course you cannot quite perceive. Until man takes charge of his world fully, this will continue to happen. Man’s subconscious prepares new tests and mirrors of his actions in the world to show him how he is doing with his collective life. The state of the world mirrors the state of man’s consciousness, both subconscious and conscious.

Your taste in entertainment and sports in your time is a reflection of where your collective mind is concentrated. You are used to violence and sensation and allow competition and aggressiveness in sports. Excellence is a concern, to some degree, but certainly not refinement and appropriateness. If appropriateness were a concern,

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would you be running around your forests in four-wheel drive trucks burning up fuel and tearing up the tundra?

It clearly bespeaks where your confused values lie.

There was much the same sort of thing occurring before the Death and the wars. There were lavish displays of meaningless activities. Everyone contributed to them, if not monetarily, at least in attendance. There seemed to be no selectivity in taste. Life was not generally lax or evil, just not devoted to quality of life, but to showy displays of violence and nonsense.

Mankind senses a lesson being given over and over in these dire events succeeding revelry. It is not the lesson they seem to think. The Romans are given as an example in your times. It was not their rich living that did them in but their loss of a sense of responsibility and purpose in the power they were given. As long as they used that power to colonize and better the lives of many, as they did for a great long time God blessed them. When they began to take in from their colonies the fruits of those efforts and turned them to luxuries for the home cities, and cease to return as much to their colonies, they were cursed by that reversal of flow.

Abundance is a worthy desire for man’s heart. It is worthy as long as it is turned in a proper direction and is administered fairly and generously. It must be a

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widespread influence. The poor must be less poor from the generosity of the rich. That goes against the grain of many of you, but it is as old as time.

The poor are there for the receipt of the riches of the successful. The pump must be primed, the wealth must be poured into the well to bestir the waters. If you take, you must give. There must be a continuation of the flow and it must be given freely. It does not matter if someone is worthy, you still must give if they are in need.

I know this goes against your grain, in your nation of hard-working proud former peasants, but it is a necessary principle to understand. You must change your attitude toward charity. The United States is perhaps the lowest of all in this department; it too often has had strings attached to its gifts, especially in the past twenty years. There has been too much giving without the spirit of charity. You must relearn it if you are to continue to prosper and to be a leader in the world.

I certainly got off on a lead, didn’t I? Do take heed. It is very important to understand why you have cycles like this on earth. As long as you strip the earth without returning to it, as long as you use the poor without returning a share of abundance to them, as

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long as you use other nations for your benefit without a generous recompense, you will suffer. You are born to repeat your mistakes unless you take thought and action to change your habits and behavior.

We love you, God loves you – the choice is yours.

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This is a new year for us. We are ready to begin a new social project. There are too many inequities arising out of our readjustments, too much handing on to old social order and useless rules.

We have all but abandoned our place as monks, in the traditional style. We are all equal under God and in our community. The opinion of the child is as valued for its wisdom as that of the sage. Of course, authority is necessary and in our group Basil is the final authority in matters in which a decision of one final individual is needed.

There are many chores that have been given to an unexpected party. The children handle positions of responsibility that would ordinarily be given only to adults. If they are competent, they are allowed that position.

Many of our assumptions about human behavior have been shattered by our experience. It seems that once

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old roots are pulled up, humans can behave in new ways. We proscribe roles much more than we are aware of.

Two of the children, a boy of eight and a girl of ten are in charge of supplying the daily drinking water stores for the community. The well is a way from our central of habitation so the water must be carried and stored nearer our homes. We have found these children to be dedicated and absolutely dependable. From what we have observed children have a capacity for dogged absorption that is not usually suspected. They will stick with a task that they can see has importance much longer than our older adults. We have given them a number of responsibilities that interest them more than others.

The older adults seem to go more toward rumination as they age. They are better employed as observers and philosophers after a time. From their long experience they make good critics and judges and can usually instruct their juniors in skills with quite Áa bit of patience. Their interest, however, turn more toward the inward than the outward. This seems to be a natural trend and not a product of circumstances.

The children and middle group of adults seems to have the greatest capacity for work and for initiating projects.

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Usually a man about 30 or 40 is the best to lead and direct a group. He seems to be a natural leader and to have the slower energies under better control.

Women generally have the most endurance and devotion but of course this varies with the age and individual. We have found the mother instinct to be extant in all ages and sexes when the natural mother is not present.

It seems that a group under stress sees the need for nurturing more than those more settled groups. A great desire for teaching and care seems to arise generally and goes far to produce exceptional children.

We are pleased with the quickness and general level of skills of our people. It is truly marvelous what they have accomplished for themselves.

Now that we are thriving to a greater extent, we feel it is time to restore a new order – to return more to the direction of former times, but not completely.

If we are to thrive as an economic unit, we must designate roles and return to more traditional forms. there seems to be a behavior proper to stress and change and a behavior proper to peace. We are endeavoring to discover what that new order shall be. It will be slowly

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instituted and much council will occur with the whole community taking part in these changes. The people have been so willing to change and to adapt we do not foresee any great difficulties but it will take time and confound tempers.

We are hopeful of success and will report on this later.

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