I am a...VERB

THREE MINUS ONE Alain was cosmopolitan; at heart, he was a city person.  For Jon and me, our life in the little hamlet of Meiners Oaks was perfect because we could live inexpensively, organizing our lives as we wanted, and yet fulfill our draft obligations.  Jon had six months left of his service and I had a year. Meanwhile, Alain was getting restless.  He wanted to move on, doing what he felt he was called to do.  His time with us was a hiatus in the flow of a life that was more established than ours, and the village environment was too confining and limited for his spirit.   He left Meiners Oaks to settle in San Francisco and carry on. NOT EXACTLY THE BOLSHOI After Alain left, Jon and I continued our editing duties with the Theosophical ecological newsletter.  We had our independent studies and did various odd jobs to get by financially.  Alain was the glue that had held us all together.  With him gone, the two of us didn't ha...

ALAIN'S MENTORING Alain was concise and articulate as well a playful and funny.  He took great pleasure in lightly teasing me...and I always was game for it.  I could see its truth as well as its humor.  He was a natural teacher and mentor at heart, and when the three of us created our little ashram it was natural that he would mentor me. Though I had a university education, even a graduate degree; though I had some skills in art and music; and though I could write and articulate my ideas, none of that was enough.  There was an emptiness I felt...something was missing...I wanted my life to blossom and flower. I was determined to lead a quality life...a life of goodness rather than selfishness, to pursue excellence rather than material pleasure, and to create and surround myself with beauty...however humble. But where to begin...? THE RUDIMENTS OF BEING CIVILIZED I told Alain of my dilemma.  This percolated between us for some time...days, ...

MAKING THE WORLD A BETTER PLACE The three of us shared a common spiritual bond.  We shared a common vision of creating a more compassionate, sane, and intelligent world...a world of beauty.  And we felt a personal responsibility in doing so. We were focused on leading well-rounded, integrated, and healthy lives, and by doing so, creating a better world.  That was what our ashram was about. Our shared experience with Krishnamurti and his insight certainly was an impetus for this bond. Alain...being older, more mature, and more experienced...focused on sharing with others, through teaching, writing, and giving talks, the knowledge, skills, and wisdom he had gained.  Jon and I were young and callow...studying, learning, and developing...searching for the knowledge and skills we would need to make a difference, and finding our place in life. Alain was a mentor and an example... ALAIN Alain had a clipped British accent...more acc...

BACK TO THE OJAI VALLEY Thankfully, the Scripps Clinic accepted my resignation, albeit reluctantly.  I packed up and headed to Ojai to join Alain and Jon at the old Dieges house in the adjacent hamlet of Meiners Oaks.  I was soon back in that magic, incredibly beautiful valley (appropriately, it was filmed as Shangri-La in Frank Capra's 1937 classic, Lost Horizon)... Being in the west end of the valley was a new experience for me...within easy walking distance to a lot of places I loved to visit, very unlike my schoolhouse location in the remote Upper Valley. A short distance away, an easy walk, was the Krotona Institute of Theosophy...with a library, bookstore, and beautiful gardens for study and contemplation.  While I wasn't interested in the Theosophical pursuit of the occult and the 'masters,' I was inspired by the atmosphere of the place.  It had been established in the 1920s for the raising of human consciousness, and the buildings and gar...

I MOVE TO THE HIGHLANDS My position at the Clinic had given me minimal free time and minimum income; my apartment rent was eating up what spare change I had.  I thought about looking elsewhere for another position and in the meanwhile, I looked for less expensive lodgings. From a notice I saw posted on the Clinic bulletin board, I rented a room in a pleasant and spacious home located above the La Jolla flatlands in the Highlands.  It was a beautiful location with considerably less rent to pay...the home of a Clinic doctor's widow. She was intelligent and cultured; we listened to music together on her excellent hi-fi stereo player.  She had a television and we regularly watched Kenneth Clark's epic 'Civilization' series which was just being broadcast for the first time.  We wouldn't miss an episode.   We got along very well; she treated me as a family member. ACQUAINTANCES BECOME MY FRIENDS: Alain and Jon    Before moving to La ...

NO TELEVISION...so what? As in Happy Valley, and as in all my previous abodes during my university years, I again had no television...which was fine with me.  When I wasn't at work, I was either out walking, or inside the apartment reading a book or listening to music.  I had everything I needed...a bed to lay on, a few wonderful books, and a great KLH portable stereo record player I had got while I lived in the schoolhouse. The KLH had small but powerful detachable speakers; everything fit and clasped together compactly (cords, speakers, player and all)...folding up into a suitcase-like unit.  With its rich sound, it easily and conveniently could accompany me on all my moves.  It was perfect. THE MUSIC My students at Happy Valley introduced me to the music of Joni Mitchell and they loved to play her album, 'Song to a Seagull.'  I was hooked. There was a record store nearby in Mission Bay where I picked up two albums: Joni Mitchell's just-r...

MY DIGS I found a nice upstairs studio apartment on the edge of La Jolla, adjacent to Pacific Beach.  It was in a 2-story U-arranged building that formed an inner courtyard, and each apartment faced the one across the way.   The apartments opened to a balcony corridor.  The location was pleasant: a quiet residential area close to a row of beachfront homes on Calumet Avenue with a grassy bluff park where I would take evening walks. This was a huge change from my unique one-room schoolhouse abode, 'in the middle of nowhere,' high up in Ojai's beautiful Upper Valley.  I missed the space, the beauty, and the silence.  But there were compensations... JEANNE Shortly after I moved in, I would see a young woman about my age coming in and out of her apartment.  She had rich red hair and a bright smile, often dressed in a medical lab coat.  She was finishing her medical tech degree in residency at Scripps Hospital, another o...