MESSAGE FROM THE HOPI ELDERS

You must go back and tell the people that this is the Hour.

And there are things to be considered.

Where are you living?

What are you doing?

What are your relationships?

Are you in right relation?

Where is your water?

Know your garden.

It is time to speak your Truth.

Create your community.

Be good to each other.

And do not look outside yourself for the leader.


This could be a good time! There is a river flowing now

Very fast. It is so great and swift that there are those who

Will be afraid. They will try to hold on to the shore. They

Will feel they are being torn apart and will suffer greatly.


See who is there with you and celebrate. At this time in

History, we are to take nothing personally. Least of all,

Ourselves. For the moment that we do, our spiritual

Growth and journey comes to a halt.


The time of the lone wolf is over. Gather yourselves!

Banish the word struggle from your attitude and your

Vocabulary. All that we do now must be done in a sacred

Manner and in celebration.


We are the ones we have been waiting for.


--Anonymous, from George Braziller’s Cry Out: Poets Protest the War

"US," the memoir of Nancy and Ben Freedman

Celebrate bad news. You don’t need to celebrate good news, you’re happy anyway. It’s when bad news knocks you off your feet that you leap up, throw your chapeau in the air, and have a party. It’s the way you reaffirm your faith in the future.—Nancy and Ben Freedman, US [MS]

Fun first, pleasure afterwards.—ditto

I’ve just had the great pleasure of rereading US, the memoir of Nancy and Ben Freedman, long time friends and Occidental College associates—and authors of Mrs Mike, Joshua Son of None, Sappho: The Tenth Muse, and many other great novels. Aside from the book’s anecdotal splendor and good humor it is filled with the kind of life-wisdom—like Nancy’s two principles stated above—that will have readers savoring it from coast to coast. In their late 80’s, they continue to write and celebrate good and bad news together In the Bay Area—one of life’s wonderful ironies, since Nancy was repeatedly told throughout her life, for the first time at the age of 4, that she wouldn’t make it for more than another year. Her love of life and Ben, and his for life and her, have kept them happy and productive for nearly a century!

The Freedmans were recently celebrated themselves in Oprah’s magazine.