A CONNECTION OF THIRTY YEARS PAST

I went to a party at the home of Linda Howard and Tucker Clark on Saturday where there were lawn games, volleyball, croquet and horse shoes.

But most importantly, a friend of Linda’s was to be there, Gail Ramey, with whom I have a long ago connection—Bob Roth. Bob is a truly wonderful guy who happens to be the person who introduced me to Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. That was in 1973. In 2003, Bob still works closely with Maharishi as his press secretary. His loyalty and dedication to Maharishi is amazing, and admirable, to me. Thirty years of focusing on a higher goal. Ho-ray, Bob!

Gail told me a wonderful tale of growing up in and around Berkeley in the 60’s and 70’s, where she and Bob had met in high school and were girlfriend and boyfriend. There they were as teenagers in the very epicenter of change for the whole country during the time when America was going through an intense change of consciousness.

I told Gail I thought it was the experimentation with hallucinogenic drugs combined with what was happening with our country’s involvement in Vietnam that opened the door that allowed people to witness different states of consciousness. It was drugs and the war shaking us to the core of our existence, which made us question the meaning of our lives and start to look for the Truth—whatever that might be.

Gail’s description of growing up in those turbulent times was so clear and so visual that I suggested that she write about it. She said she’d already begun to; I hope she continues.

When I began to blog, I began with my story of life in 1970, when I’d just come home from my year in Vietnam and traveled to California in search of my guru. Talking with Gail about those times brought me back there again. 1970 was truly a new beginning for me.

Living on the anchovy boat in Santa Barbara harbor, I was a lost soul. I’d lost my faith in the inevitability of life—something we usually take for granted—the fact that life will continue into the next day and the next and so on. What was going on with me then was not just a questioning of our country’s moral values—I had a cavernous doubt, a huge hole in my soul, caused by the war which needed to be filled with some positive affirmation that life was worth living.

I think That is what Gail and I were talking about at Linda and Tucker’s party. It was powerful, as it always is, to be reminded of those years. I admire Bob Roth for sticking so closely to his quest for the Answer. And thanks to Gail for bringing it back to being so close at hand.