Trail Tales, Fourth Quarter, 2007
10/10/07:The beginning of the 4th Quarter started out with a study group at Rita and Pat Cooper's in Grant's Pass, Oregon. A few people left before I remembered to take a photo, but this tied for the largest presentation to date with 15 people attending! It was the last study group I did in Oregon and because it was rescheduled to Oct. 1 from the original scheduled date of Oct. 3, it turned out that I ended up doing four presentations in Oregon over a five-day period.
Because I got a little ahead of myself in the previous Trail Tale, I've already written about how this rescheduling allowed Bernie to attend a Jerry Joseph concert with me two days later at a place that was sporting a lot of Bob Venosa's artwork. So if you haven't read the previous Trail Tale, I highly recommend it if you want to stay up on all the magic. I ended up leaving Oregon for Arcata, CA on the 4th so that I would be there in time for a presentation at Bob Hunt's on the 5th.
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Bob Hunt retired as a professor at Humboldt State University a few years previously. He recently remarried Gwen, who is one of my very first Urantian friends. I met Gwen and her daughter Alana (the didgeridoo player who lives on Maui) back in New England during the early 80's when I was in college. We haven't been keeping up much the last number of years so it came as a surprise to learn that Gwen was in Arcata and married to Bob. It was wonderful to see Arcata again. I hadn't been in the area since living in eastern Humboldt County for several months in 2001. Bob and Gwen were wonderful hosts for the few nights that I stayed with them before heading south to the San Francisco Bay area.
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David Bradley showed up at the study group. And it was an additional pleasant surprise to see him the next morning playing music in downtown Arcata during an arts festival. While searching the web to make sure I spelled his last name correctly, I found this paragraph about him on the University of Metaphysical Sciences website: “David Bradley was born, raised, and lives in California, residing in Arcata. He has practiced Geotechnical Engineering in California, and has been a Urantia Book reader, for over 25 years. He has published a book titled An Introduction to The Urantia Revelation (White Egret Publications, Second Edition, 2002). He also plays cajun-zydeco music with a local band, the Bayou Swamis.”
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After spending a little time at the festival Saturday morning, where a picked up a delicious jar of locally grown organic olives, I started to make my way down Route 101 so that I could get to the Urantia retreat that was being held that weekend outside of Sebastopol, which is not far from San Francisco. I wanted to at least get there for the last day so that I could do a little networking with the folks there who might be able to help me set up presentations in California. Travelling down Route 101 is a magical experience because it takes one right through some of the biggest redwood forests in California. Unfortunately, I couldn't linger as much as I wanted to because I needed to get down to Sebastopol on Sunday. But as you can see, I did at least stop briefly to personally say hello to some of the giants.
About twenty people were in attendance at the retreat outside of Sebastopol. It is tucked away in the steep hills north of the Bay Area at an absolutely magical location. The roads are very narrow getting up to it and so I was encouraged to not take my motor home. This meant getting to Larry Geis' early in the morning to catch a ride.
I met John Arkley at the retreat. He is very passionate about various science topics related to The Urantia Book and I think he is going to be very helpful in identifying potential new topics and doing some of the research on them. Victoria Clark, from southern California, was there and she is going to help with setting up a presentation in her area. She also graciously offered me a place to stay while I am down that way and no doubt I will take her up on that offer.
I had to do a really quick, rush-out-the-door type of turn around once I got back to Larry's so that I could make it down to Aptos in time for a presentation at Paul Buttitta's. It took about four hours of driving to get there and involved having to get off the highway and going through the city a bit, so as to not have to circumvent it, which would have taken even longer. I got there with fifteen minutes to spare.
Aptos is where I was living when I discovered The Urantia Book over twenty-five years ago while canvassing for Greenpeace out of their Santa Cruz office. Lee Smith showed up at the study group. His study group was the first one I ever attended. I was only able to make it once before heading back to the east coast in the summer of 1981. Naturally, it was great to see him there along with Claudia and other familiar faces. We had a nice dinner before hand and there were nine people in attendance.
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I spent the night in Aptos and then the next morning did a little stomping around the beautiful woods below the university in Santa Cruz before heading back up to the Bay Area. I'm now staying with Claire Miller in Mill Valley, north of San Francisco. As you can see from the picture, Claire lives at the very top of the ridge. The views are absolutely fantastic of both the Bay and the ocean. We're walking distance to trails that take one through Mir Woods. It's a very enchanting place to hike through. I'll be staying here for almost two weeks. It is a much-needed break from the highway!
Namaste,
Halbert
10/20/07: The middle of October has been a most wonderful ten-day period. I did three presentations. One of them set a new record for the most attendees. Mind Body & Spirit agreed to help support this mission; this means that tax deductible contributions can now be made through Mind Body & Spirit in support of UBtheNEWS. And to top it all off, some excellent Halbertcicles grew!
Endless thanks goes to Claire Miller who let me stay at her place while I was in the Bay Area. Claire was extremely helpful in many ways. She drove me to two presentations and hosted one at her house. Not having to drive myself made things much easier. Claire has been involved with the Urantia community for many years and at one point worked at the Urantia Foundation. She's a keen observer and generates excellent insights from her social experiences. Because she saw me present this material three times, she was able to provide me with a lot of fantastic feedback. Claire has also said that she wants to help me with editing and other types of UBtheNEWS related activities. She lives close to Mir Woods in Mill Creek, just across the Golden Gate Bridge, and we enjoyed some beautiful walks together. As some of you may have seen from the last Trail Tale, Claire lives at the top of a ridge that has amazing views to the east, south, and west.
Sixteen people attended the presentation at Sara Blackstock's. We had a wonderful potluck before getting things started.
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Sara Blackstock's Study Group
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This beat the previous record of fifteen. While driving to the study group, I was talking to Claire about how I felt the presentations were getting a bit too intellectual and needed to be more fun. So I made a very conscious effort to bring a more joyous spirit to the event. It seems this was very much appreciated by the group; I promise to keep it up. They were also the first group to enjoy a 5 minute break in the middle of the presentation. After doing a number of these I came to the stunning realization that an hour and twenty minutes straight of this stuff is simply too much for most people. The break went over really well. So I guess we'll keep that in there as a regular thing.
I very much want to thank all the people at Mind Body & Spirit for embracing the UBtheNEWS mission. Fred Harris was instrumental in bringing this synergistic opportunity to that organization for their consideration. He has also been very helpful from the beginning with editing reports before I post them. I would also like to thank Judy Langston, Paula Sutton, Helen Luke, Annie Bowman, Linda MacDonald, and Steffani Murray. There were probably others involved that I am not aware of. Much thanks goes to all of you and I look forward to us accomplishing great things together.
Everyone can help by making a contribution to UBtheNEWS. Please do this now. No kidding. Otherwise I'm very soon going to have to consider earning money in other ways so that I can continue to fund this effort. My personal resources are very limited by IC08, maybe sooner. I am in no sense “independently wealthy.” If I'm going to continue doing this on the full time basis, a community commitment is essential. Click here to make an online contribution.
And lastly, I am happy to report that the Halbertcicles seemed to like being at Claire's place very much. I offer this one picture to reflect the magic of my stay at her place. Quite a few others grew as well. If you are unfamiliar with the Halbertcicle phenomenon, click away!
Namaste,
Halbert
10/30/07: The beginning of the end of October was the beginning of the end of spending time north of Interstate 80. From Salt Lake City in late August through Mill Valley in mid October, my travels took me to the great northwest. Twenty-one study groups later, I found myself in Los Vegas, NV with someone who personally gave a copy of The Urantia Book to Pope John Paul II. I shook the hand of the hand that handed. . .
There were about seven people at Gard Jameson's study group.
One of them was an elderly gentleman who, as I understand it, had been a catholic priest for about fifty years. He's been aware of The Urantia Book for thirty. He's, of course, is the one who handed a copy of the UB off to the Pope. It was also great to see Marvin Gawryn there, who I had missed seeing up in the Washington. Gard invited me to stay at his place that evening, which provided the beautiful view that you see in the picture. The next morning he got me in touch with Matt Neibaur.
Matt had done some work on issues a while back related to science and The Urantia Book. We had a wonderful conversation this last week and I hope he and I find ways to synergise on some of this work in the future.
Between Gard's study group and the one at Lucille Kettell's in Arcadia, California (outside of LA) I had a full week with no study groups. That hadn't happened in months. My first stop after Gard's was to see one of my best friend's from college, Eric, who lives in Simi Valley, northwest of Santa Monica. We had smoke from the fires all around us. But it remained reasonably clear where we were. I planning to then head south, near Irvine, to stay at Victoria Clark's, but she was getting so smoked out that the better part of wisdom required making other plans. As it turned out, a friend from Boulder was able to offer me a place to stay in Santa Monica. Joe and I first met when I moved to Boulder in 1987 to go to a Urantia Book school.
From Santa Monica it was up to Temple City to meet with Larry and Donna Whelan. They had offered to have me over for dinner and then we drive up to the study group at Lucille Kettell's in Arcadia. At dinner I met a friend of theirs, Michael DiMattia. We hit off very well. He is a sound engineer and wants to help me get some sounds integrated into the website. He is also good on the astronomy side of things, which is good, except that he pointed out where the Galaxies: Who's Counting report has some problems, which is bad. But he's going to help me get it straightened out and then reposted, which, of course, is good. So that's good.
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Larry & Donna with Morning Glories
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Eleven people showed up at Lucille's study group. Sorry I didn't get a picture. It went very nicely. However, the next morning I realized that I needed to totally revamp the presentation. After conferring with Larry and Donna, who let me stay at their place while in town, the matter was settled. There is going to be a bit less information and lot more participation. The last half hour is now set aside for open discussion focused on how to give a positive and powerful first impression of the UB to people who don't know anything about it. (Last night I tried this for the first time. It went very well. ;-)
Namaste,
Halbert
11/10/07: In the first seven days of November I did five presentations. All totalled, about sixty people attended these events. This run included doing my first presentation for college students, my first presentation at a United Church of Christ church, and my first specially structured presentation for a mixed group (both UB readers and those unfamiliar with the UB). Then, while heading up to Boulder, CO at the conclusion of this mini marathon that covered over 1000 miles, my odometer turned to 77,777. Aside from being a nice collection of sevens, it also marks covering 20,000 miles since this journey began in January of 2007.
On the first of November I had the pleasure of doing my first presentation for college students. Kay Nuissl's daughter, Jensen, goes to UC Santa Barbara. I met Kay earlier this year at Chris Halvorson's study group in Boulder. Bless her heart, Kay has declared herself to be the No. 1 fan of the UBtheNEWS project. Knowing that I was in the Santa Barbara area, she encouraged Jensen to get some her friends together from college for a presentation. This Jensen did and they got to see the very first slide show presentation specifically designed for groups that are unfamiliar with The Urantia Book. Hats off to Kay and Jensen for creating the first direct outreach event for college students!
Being in Santa Barbara also gave me the opportunity to visit with an old friend from high school who I had not seen in about twenty-five years. It was wonderful to catch up with him, meet his wife and friends, and get to appreciate why Santa Barbara is so much like Boulder with a beach. Much thanks goes to he and his wife for putting me up for the night and making my stay in Santa Barbara especially wonderful.
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Santa Paula, CA is about an hour away from Santa Barbara. I went there the next day for a presentation at the home of John and Elisabeth Callahan. Pictured in the big comfy armchair is Barry Bedell, son of Clyde Bedell, who wrote the Concordex. For those of you so blessed with youth that you cannot imagine what it was like to live without computers, imagine what it would be like to do a combination index/concordance of The Urantia Book without one. Barry, like his father, has always been one to try to make things happen and move things forward. It was great to get in touch with Barry because he knew how to get me in touch with Zola, who I had lost touch with and who was canvassing for Greenpeace with me over 25 years ago when I first found The Urantia Book. My how far we've come since then!
The Callahan's were wonderful hosts. They put me up for the night in their most beautiful guest room. The conversation the next morning was as stimulating as doing the presentation the night before. It was a real pleasure to meet and get to know them and their support of the UBtheNEWS project is very much appreciated.
The morning after their study group I started the several hours drive down to San
Diego to meet up with Phil Calabrese. Phil was one of my primary inspirations
for the UBtheNEWS project. His presentation of at the Villanova conference in
2005 on “The Coming Scientific Validation of The Urantia Book” was a pivotal
event in my appreciation of how much science has been catching up to the UB.
When I first hit the road in January, I pretty much made a B-line to Phil's so
that I could immediately begin coordinating my efforts with his. And I'm very
happy to say that after our recent meeting, Phil said that he would take on the
work of doing a major upgrade to the Galaxies: Who's Counting report.
Phil is a member at the United Church of Christ and was able to set up a Sunday morning presentation. This was scheduled just before their Sunday service. Fifteen people showed up to this event. The vast majority of those who attended were not much familiar with The Urantia Book. I prepared a forty-minute presentation for this event (plus another twenty minutes at the end for Q & A). It was a nice step forward in the evolution of UBtheNEWS presentations to prepare one of this length.
The next day I did the long drive from San Diego to Phoenix for a presentation at Dick Johnson's study group. This study group has been meeting for decades. They are the core of the Golden Gate Society and the ones responsible for the Adopt a Highway/Urantia Book sign that has become the icon for the Trail Tales. About a dozen or more people showed up for this presentation. Having visited this group back in March (when I found out that they put up the sign), it was very nice to return to do a presentation. Though I did lead study groups back then about the UBtheNEWS project, doing so was not such a regular thing for me during that period. The project was just getting started and so often I would go to study groups and just casually inform people about what I was up to. I think we have now achieved a good balance between casual conversation and formal presentation.
The fifth presentation of the week was held the next day in Tucson. Before the presentation I got to have lunch with Richard Thompson, a friend from high school who I had gotten back in touch with for the first time in twenty-five years when I was staying in the Tucson area at the beginning of this year. Like the presentation at Dick's, this was also a nice way to mark time the passage of time. Richard teaches about dinosaurs at the university in Tucson and actually has a dinosaur named after him. He and a friend discovered the first remains found of this enormous creature about fifteen years ago. Richard has been helpful to me over the past several months regarding some dinosaur issues that are mentioned in the UB.
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Halbert, Barbara, and Don
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The presentation in Tucson was held at the home of Barbara Palmer and Don Poore. Their wonderful home perfectly compliments the beautiful views that they enjoy in all directions. The last time I left Tucson, it was from their home at the end of the first phase of this project. A lot has changed since then. But not the fine hospitality of Barbara and Don. The morning after the presentation, I was sent off with a nice little bag a fresh baked chocolate chip cookies that lasted all the way to Boulder.
Barbara and Don really took the outreach opportunity to heart. There were fifteen people at this presentation. Five were from their regular group, two were people who had attended in the past, and the other eight were people who were unfamiliar with the UB. This was the first presentation I did that was put together specifically for mixed groups. Of the eight guests who were new to the UB, three indicated that they wanted to start attending the study groups! Hats off to Barbara and Don for doing such an outrageous job of inviting people to be introduced to the UB through a UBtheNEWS presentation. Let's all take the lesson of their efforts to heart. Inviting people inspires attendance; attendance inspires interest. It's just that simple.
Namaste,
Halbert
11/20/07: If time be reckoned by when I pass through Boulder, then another cycle has just been completed. It marks the end of a three-month period during which I did thirty presentations in eight states: Colorado, Utah, Idaho, Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada, and New Mexico. What started in Boulder with images being brought up on my laptop to about seven people on 8/14/07, ended in Boulder with a slide presentation to about 30 people on 11/11/07. Approximately 280 people attended UBtheNEWS presentations during this last cycle.
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Eric Schaveland videoed the slide presentation. (He videos Chris Halvorson's study groups on a regular basis and also does a lot of other UB related archiving work.) Before I left town on the 20th he had managed to turn the whole project around and was able to send me off with about a dozen copies to give out to folks along the way. He even created a nice little intro to it as well. Hopefully, before long, I'll get a chance to make up some mini presentations out of this that will suitable for YouTube. Eric and I first met twenty years ago when we attended the Boulder School, a program that did a two-year intensive study of the UB. If our current activities are any indication, I suppose it could be said that we must have learned something.
Speaking of learning things, if anyone knows anything about the relationship of vanadium to the transportation of oxygen in sea squirts, please get in touch with me. I'm starting to think this may become a good project for UBtheNEWS. The UB says that vanadium is used in this capacity. Apparently, marine biologists haven't quite figured it out yet. But they have been doing research recently related to this subject and they are confused by why there is so much vanadium in sea squirts. This suggests to me that we should start talking about it amongst ourselves, plan a course of action, and then go do some outreach with people in this field. I've already set things in motion a bit. This is definitely the time to jump in if you have any interest in or knowledge about this topic. If you have a medical degree or are otherwise working or connected with people in biochemistry or marine biology, we should talk.
Up until these last three months, I consistently published one report per month. This average got sacrificed to the tour schedule. Now I'm looking to at least get into double-digits by the end of the year. One more report will achieve that much. Double-digits will be a nice enough milestone in the list of first year accomplishments for UBtheNEWS. But with a little help from the UB community, this one per month average could once again be reclaimed. UBtheNEWS will have greater credibility as more people become involved with writing up the reports.
Generally speaking, this is a great time to start working synergistically with the UBtheNEWS project. As the months go by, excellent opportunities to move this mission forward continue to develop. Even if you're not up for doing the writing, help with research is always appreciated and can usually be done efficiently and effectively online.
There are several reports that need updating as well. Unless someone wants to offer some assistance with these, they will have to wait until I finish another report and write an article for the Fellowship Herald called: The Urantia Book Is Not What It Used To Be. If anyone thinks they might like to take a shot at updating some of the reports with new material, please get in touch. This is a fairly easy job and doesn't take much time. It just involves coming up with a way to integrate some additional research into the body of a report that is already written. Don't be shy. This is fun, easy, doesn't take much time, gets you credit here on Urantia as well as brownie points in heaven, and would allow me more time to focus on the types of activities that are uniquely suited to the particular role I've taken on with the UBtheNEWS project, i.e. contacting scholars whose research I have used in reports that have already been published, getting in touch with Iranian classmates from high school about the Adamson Project, etc.
Before leaving Boulder for Thanksgiving in Arkansas, I scheduled another presentation at the Boulder City Club for this May. I did a presentation there in late August to a small group. It went over very well with the organizer of these events. The small attendance was primarily an issue of the late August timing and the fact that we only had two weeks to advertise it. The organization for this next event is obviously getting started well in advance and we've been discussing ways to do so that it should draw around thirty people.
On November 20 I left Boulder for Arkansas, which is too far to drive to in one day. But it is not too far to get to Wichita. For those of you who have been following along with the Trail Tales, you may recall that I have a most excellent uncle who lives in Wichita. He and his wife took me out for an awesome dinner and sent me off the next morning with some fantastic food for the road. Thanks to Eric's fine work, I was also able to leave them a copy of my presentation. They are the first of my family members to get to view the presentation- one more thing to be thankful for at Thanksgiving.
I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!
Namaste,
Halbert
11/30/07: Thanksgiving was truly a time for doing just that. Joseph and Janet Morgan extended an invitation to join them, their daughter, April, and her husband, Rob for a totally organic Thanksgiving dinner! Joseph and Janet operate the Arkansas House. The Arkansas House sports exquisite rooms, a health food store, a salon, and the ONLY totally organic restaurant in the fine state of Arkansas.
Joseph and Janet are long time UB readers who have lived in this rather remote part of Arkansas for decades. They bought and began operating this oasis about a year or so ago. People come from all over the state just to enjoy an all-organic menu. The property sits on the Little Buffalo River in downtown Jasper, population ~500. It is about twenty minutes south of Harrison, if that means anything to you. If not, google up a map.
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Janet would like to do a UB women's retreat there over the Easter/solstice weekend. So if any you wonderful UB women out there want to celebrate the fact that He is risen and the emergence into a bit more light than darkness, I highly encourage you to make contact with Janet to see what's up. She said that if this event gets off the ground, then I'll be invited back for UBtheNEWS presentation and so that Joseph won't be too out-numbered. Janet is deeply committed to promoting outreach and, as I understand it, she would be focusing the retreat on that topic (my favourite theme ;-).
Many thanks to Janet and Joseph for being such wonderful hosts and inviting me to join them for Thanksgiving. It was just what I needed and just in time because I was barely able to say ahead of the artic winds that were blowing in from the north and chasing me out of Boulder at just that time.
As it turns out, John Rob Owens also lives in the area. John Rob and I shared a house for a year when we moved to Boulder to study The Urantia Book at The Boulder School. He is a master goldsmith and has his shop in Harrison (a place you are no doubt familiar with at this point). As you can see from the picture, when it comes to throwing together some gold with bits and pieces of diamonds and rubies, John Rob isn't just horsing around. Click here to see more of his work.
After spending a couple days with JR, I braved the artic temperatures, ran the water out of my lines, and headed on up to Denison University in Granville, Ohio. Professor Lyone S. Fein invited me to present to her World Religions class and Nature of Religion class. In case you did not know, the syllabus material, created to give the students an overview of The Urantia Book, is provided on the home page of UBtheNEWS. It has about three pages of context and then about 35 pages of direct quotes. It makes for a very nice intro and can be forwarded by email- hint, hint.
The Nature of Religion class had about 17 students in it. The World Religions class was packed with thirty-three people, including the professor. That means this event at Denison University not only marks the first time I have presented at a university, but also sets the record for the most people that I have presented to (at least in relationship to this work).
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Words can't describe how wonderful it is to do this type of event and then have a student come afterwards eagerly wanting to know how he can buy a book! Brings a tear to the eye. As a matter of fact, Prof. Fein told me that reading through the syllabus material brought a tear to her eye. Not surprisingly she thought the whole thing went very well and she would like to have me come back next semester to do it all again. And the following school year and for a couple years after that. So hopefully, after doing a presentation at the women's retreat at Arkansas House, I'll head on up to Denison again in April. This would put me in good position to meet up with the fine folks in the New York/New Jersey area who I did not have time to see when I was in New England last summer.
I figure that after the Celestial Nights retreat, having done a very thorough tour of Florida, I will head out to do some outreach in Texas, then head to Arkansas, then back up to the northeast, which means that by IC08 I will have gotten to just about everywhere in the US before the conference. This is a goal I set out for myself at the beginning of the UBtheNEWS project and it certainly is amazing to see it all coming to fruition in so many marvellous ways!
I hate to be such a little bugger about being such a little beggar, but please consider a contribution to UBtheNEWS this Christmas, which, of course, can now be done in a manner that is tax deductible. The potentials of this project are fantastic and I will always stay committed them, but the velocity with which they are realized is destined to slow down considerably before very long if the UB community does not support me in doing this outreach service. That's just a fact. The meaning is that you can make the difference. The value is the big smile it will put on your face now and all the mansion world brownie points you'll get later!
Namaste,
Halbert
12/15/07: After the post-Thanksgiving presentations at Denison University, I immediately headed south, out of the 24 degree weather, down to northern Mississippi where I spent a few days with Blanche and Jim Cleveland. Some of you may be aware that Jim, along with his daughter's assistance, does the www.lightandlife.com website. Among other things, he creates and makes available wonderful collections of spiritual music.
I saw Blanche and Jim at the ALL conference this summer and was very happy to have been able to accept their invitation to visit them in Mississippi. They do not get many visitors in their neck of the woods, so it was great to be able to find them not too far off the trail as I headed south out of Ohio. Blanche used to live in Boca Raton. She got turned onto The Urantia Book through David Hubbard, a good friend of mine who I look forward to seeing soon while I'm in southern Florida for the end of December and January.
My next stop was Mobile, AL. I spent a week at the University of South Alabama library. They have open wireless access on that campus, so I was able to get a lot of work done there. Walmart has several locations in Mobile, which is a pretty small city. There were three locations near the campus, so I was able to circulate through them at night, thus not overstaying my welcome. The food on campus was okay and reasonably priced, so it all worked out very well.
No presentations were scheduled during the first two weeks of December. On Sunday, December 9th, I was planning to drive to Quincy, FL to spend some time at Fred Harris' home in advance of the presentation scheduled for the 16th in Tallahassee. Looking at the map I realized that Arnie Ondis from Gulf Breeze and Don Ware from Ft. Walton Beach were both pretty much right on the way, so I gave them a call to see if either of them wanted to get together for lunch while I was on my way out to Fred's place.
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Don said that there was a Christmas party that evening in Gulf Breeze hosted by Unlimited Horizons of the Emerald Coast and that I should check it out. Back in the late 1980's there were a lot of UFO sightings being reported in the Gulf Breeze area. Unlimited Horizons is a group that brings together people who are into the UFO phenomenon. Naturally, this type of group brings together all kinds of interesting folks who are into everything from UFO's to Big Foot. They were a very fun crowd. About sixty people attended and as I came to find out, largely though Don, about one third of them had at least heard about The Urantia Book.
By the end of that event, I was scheduled to do a UBtheNEWS presentation the next evening at the Gulf Breeze study group, attend a Christmas party on Tuesday in Panama City at Capstone House, attend the Ft. Walton Beach area study group on Wednesday, and then do another UBtheNEWS presentation at Capstone House on Thursday evening. Capstone House is an organization of truth-seekers that are not affiliated with any particular tradition or perspective. They are simply open to the full spectrum of intellectually and spiritually uplifting “stuff” that life has to offer. Not surprisingly, this was an absolutely wonderful group of people.
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After the Unlimited Horizon's Christmas dinner everyone was invited to take a turn at the microphone if they had any interesting stories from the last year or upcoming events to announce. Naturally, I took the opportunity to tell people a little bit about The Urantia Book and invite them to the UBtheNEWS presentation that was being held at the Gulf Breeze library the next night. Of the twenty-two people who attended the presentation, about one third of them knew nothing or next to nothing about the UB. It was a most delightful and effervescent group of people who attended and we all enjoyed an excellent potluck before the presentation.
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The next evening's potluck at Capstone House, of course, provided another opportunity to inform people about the presentation that was going to be held there on Thursday. As you can see from the picture, they even put up an announcement on their marque (TRS stands for Thursday ;-). Seventeen people showed up to this event, none of whom were Urantia Book readers. They were able to get this type of attendance during the holidays with just a few days notice. Ed, the gentleman who organized it and pictured with Don and I, said they did not even have a chance to get it in the paper, but that if I was willing to do another one in February, when I'm passing back through that area, the ability to do more advanced promotion would probably bring in an even larger group next time! I happily agreed, of course, to do a repeat performance.
Don and his wife Carol were very sweet to let me stay at their place in Ft. Walton Beach during this period. This allowed me to get a lot of insight into what all is going on in this area. I have never been to an area where one person has introduced The Urantia Book to so many people. Don is an incredible person in this regard. He knows how to associate with groups who are open minded and very much interested to hear about The Urantia Book. I've never seen anything like before. He embodies the wisdom of involving himself with the type of people who have not heard about the UB, but would be interested to know about it, like the UFO communities, Capstone House, and Unity Churches.
The study group that Don took me to on Wednesday night featured another fantastic potluck. And Sandy, who hosted the event, not only had a can of Christmas cookies for everyone, but she is also in the habit of sending all the single guys off with a nice bag of leftovers. Bless her heart! This was the first study group I attended where they listen to The Urantia Book off the DVD that comes with the Uversa Press edition of the UB. It was a very enjoyable way to hold a study group. I highly recommend it. It is definitely worth trying it to see if you like it.
Please consider a contribution to the UBtheNEWS project this Christmas so that this ministry can maintain the full time commitment it deserves. I hope you have a wonderful holiday season with your family and friends.
Peace be with you,
Halbert
12/31/07: As the first year of the UBtheNEWS project drew to a close, I was blessed to be the guest of Fred and Lucy Harris. They are pictured here standing at the Temple to the Father, the first structure built on the 400 gorgeous acres of land where Fred and Lucy live outside of Tallahassee, FL. Fred has been tremendously supportive of this project from the beginning. He has provided a lot of valuable editorial feedback for the reports and was instrumental in orchestrating the involvement of Mind, Body & Spirit.
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Staying at Fred’s was a mystical, magical and memorable experience. The morning mists made our early morning trail rides a mystical experience. As you can see, the Halbertcicles really liked Fred’s freezer and were very much in the Christmas spirit. And it will always be especially memorable because Fred generously gave me his GPS navigator. So now, wherever I’m on the road in unfamiliar territory, it is now much easier because of him. This is an invaluable tool for someone like myself, who is always travelling to places I’ve never been before. My stress levels while driving have been reduced dramatically.
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I very much enjoyed getting to know Lucy. Even though they had a lot going on in advance of the holidays, she took excellent care of me and made me feel very welcomed. Their property is extraordinary. It has forests filled with hard and soft woods (including pecan trees, which were in season), fields, lakes (complete with alligators) and streams that originate on the property. There are two naturally forming amphitheatres, miles of trails, abundant wildlife, including a rare breed of white (not albino) squirrels. This is one of the few areas in Florida that actually has hills. Fred and I had a wonderful canoeing experience one morning, discussing the future possibilities for UBtheNEWS. As you can see from the picture, the dock invites pausing to reflect on the beauty of God’s creation and all of the blessings that life provides.
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It was especially exciting to do a presentation for the Mind, Body & Spirit folks. They have been extremely generous with their support of this project. At the end of this year they took up a collection and matched the funds! This effort raised about $1,500 and made this homeless person’s Christmas season a much happier occasion. I can’t think of a better gift than the opportunity to continue doing this project. After the presentation, we wrapped gifts for a local charity. When you view these pictures, you are looking at modern day heroes, champions of truth, beauty, and goodness, motivated by loving service to all of God’s children.
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One of the highlights of my stay at Fred’s was going with his father-in-law and brother-in-law to go enjoy a barbeque with Atlanta’s governor, Sonny Perdue. He’s willing to take a picture with anyone wearing a camouflage hat. Fortunately, Fred was able to properly equip me for the occasion. It is very important when travelling to try to fit in, especially at the annual Bugger Bay Barbeque, which attracts a couple hundred backwoods southern gentlemen to one incredible flesh fest. I’m so glad Jesus taught me to eat whatever is being served. That’s one life lesson that goes down really well with me.
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My next stop was in Gainesville for a visit with Matt and Mercedes Neibaur. Matt was making contributions over fifteen years ago to the documentation of how science is catching up to The Urantia Book. He helped produce a publication in the early 1990’s called The Science Content of The Urantia Book. That was before they invented the Internet. Doing research back then was a lot more difficult than it is today. Even though some the claims in that publication ultimately did not end up panning out once I did some additional research, many of them still hold up. I originally contacted Matt because of his previous work in this area. Naturally, it was nice to get to spend some time with one of the early pioneers of this subject.
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A couple days before Christmas I headed down to Deerfield Beach (just north of Miami). My stay in Mississippi with Blanche and Jim Cleveland helped prepare the way for a wonderful entry into south Florida. On top of giving me a bunch of networking leads, Blanche also very generously offered to let me stay in her empty condo (she and Jim had to move to Mississippi to take care of Jim’s aging mother). I can’t begin to tell you what a blessing it has been to end this whirlwind of a year with a place all to myself. It even has Internet service. The weather has been great. I wish you all could be here. ;-)
Aside from all the great UB connections I’ve been making with some people I know from what seems like previous lifetimes, it has also given me a chance to see a college friend of mine, Mitch, who I haven’t seen in almost twenty years. Mitch is a great musician and I got to play some music with him. David Hubbard and I also got to play a few tunes for the first time since IC05.
For those of you who were expecting another report before the end of the year, I’m sorry to say that there was not enough time to accomplish that goal. Getting into double digits will be a nice way to kick off the new year, though. Up grades to three of the reports will be coming soon as well as a rewriting of the brochure. We really have a lot to look forward to in this next year. I am very grateful to all the people who have helped make the first year of UBtheNEWS extremely successful. Thanks to everyone who has hosted study groups, helped with the reports, provided me a place to stay, made contributions, told people about the project and provided support in so many other ways. Check out the 4th Quarter Report to review all that has been accomplished so far!
And get ready for an even better second year now that we have the first year to build on!
Namaste,
Halbert
Archived Trail Tales:
2007: 3rd Quarter
2007: 2nd Quarter
2007: 1st Quarter
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