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Fred looked at her, curiously. "Do you really means this," he said. "Are you willing to take the steps?"
Sylvia nodded.
"How do we get out of any rut, but by moving to higher ground? Here Mary may help us. We must do what it takes," I said boldly. "What we have in common of our humanity across the world and all nations comes to light as being indeed huge and profound, and ii may be greater than the greatest challenge we ever face. But we have to get out of the rut."
Tony came onto the scene and laughed. "Hear who is talking. You guys are champions of getting stuck in the rut. We all are."
"I think what lies outside the rut comes to light as something infinitely greater than anything that has ever dragged us down, has divided us, and still does so," said Sylvia. "Fortunately a major element of what divides us is lodged so closely at our home gate that we simply cannot ignore it when we are honest with ourselves, and step over it. Scientifically speaking, what Mary has put on the table as our all-embracing natural marriage, which she said is an established reality, needs to be acknowledged on all levels, from the most intimate social level including sex, all the way laterally to the global political and economic level. One universal principle unites us all across the board in every domain. The problem may be that we have regarded the Principle of Universal Love as far too abstract and utopian, so that we don't really see it as something absolutely fundamental to human existence and civilization. This delusion has become a trap for us all, and it seems hard to pull ourselves out of this trap."
Fred simply nodded to Sylvia. He didn't argue any of her points. Finally he stood up to fill his cup of hot chocolate up again. He seemed to agree with the entire concept that Ross and I laid out before him. He didn't argue against it. I found this reaction strange. He acted as if none of what we had said was in any way new to him. He nodded as if Ross and I and Sylvia had merely commented on something that should be blatantly self-evident, like the storm that had come up that morning, which was whipping up white caps out on the water as everyone could see. Still he kept quiet. He has something up his sleve. One could see it in his smile.
Eventually Fred turned to me which his fresh cup of chocolate still in hand. "Do you really believe what you are saying?" He said calmly and deliberately clearly, so as to avoid any misunderstanding.
I answered affirmatively.
"I dare you to prove in real life that this principle that you have discovered is valid and has demonstrable merit," said Fred to me.
"Are you ready for a challenge?" Fred sad to Sylvia. He continued speaking in the same tone of voice. "Let me caution both of you, having to deliver proof puts a whole new dimension on things. Maybe I should be asking you to consider if it is really possible to do what you say must be done, which no one has yet been able to do for 4000 years?"
"Yes, I think it is possible," I answered strongly. "It must be possible. If we say it isn't, we have no hope at all."
"Maybe that is why we got stuck in a rut for a dozen years," said Sylvia, "because we have said to ourselves that the Principle of Universal Love doesn't really apply in the real world. And now you are saying the same thing again, that it might not apply, and much less so the principle of the universal marriage of mankind, which is built on that larger principle. We have said this confusing thing to ourselves for a long time, Fred, it has become a looped song like from a broken record. We keep saying that all of that is impractical, even while we see no other option. For 4000 years mankind has been subjected to the rule of empires and their looting and their wars. For 4000 years we have struggled to pull ourselves free. For 4000 years we have failed while things got worse. Now we face the possible extinction of civilization, if not mankind itself, if don't change course into a principle-powered direction. Our killing machines have become too powerful for mankind to survive in the long run. We have to turn the page no matter what it takes. We have to go in the right direction, and we all know what direction that is. We have said that the principle that offers hope is too big and is pie-in-the-sky-stuff, the stuff of dreams. We have said this also about the principles that Mary put on the table. And the price, Fred, that we paid for saying this has been a century of war in which half the world was destroyed and a hundred million people were killed. And now in the nuclear-armed world the price looms even bigger and we seem to be prepared to pay this price too, and still we say no to the only principle that can turn the ship around. We say it doesn't apply. Maybe it does apply. We should at least give it a run, we should invite every opportunity, whatever that means."
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