Strangely, no one reacted.



      Another of our British friends scolded Tony. Then he scolded his own college who had first started to talk about the girls. "We really ought to feel guilty about girl watching," he said to them.

      "But why? Tell me, why! I love these girls," replied Tony. "I love them all. I feel something warm and beautiful inside. Why should I not notice them, and noticing, fall in love with them? No law is broken by appreciating the loveliness there is. No law that I know of."

      I supported Tony by telling him that he was absolutely right, provided that he was giving something back to them with his smiles. "You should make a speech about that at the conference," I added jokingly.

      "Of course I will," Tony replied. "Nothing would please me more."

      He turned to Fred. "Can you get me a spot on the podium?"

      "Do you really want to do this?" Fred asked Tony. "That's a tough assignment, making a speech about girl watching without messing things up."

      "Absolutely!" Tony replied. "And I won't be messing things up."

      "I think you will," Fred commented.

      Fred looked at me. "In this case it becomes your task to build a foundation for Tony."

      He turned to Ross. "Your task will be to follow this up. Leave no loose ends. Raise the platform beyond girl watching. Do you feel up to this? Get somebody to help you if you don't."

      Fred turned to Sylvia. "This might be important."

      He turned to me again. "You are OK with that?"

      "Why me, Fred?"

      "Because you are the expert on the high level principles that must be put on the map and into the minds of the assembly before Tony steps on the podium. This is needed before his address can be effective.

      "Me an expert?" I replied.

      Fred began to laugh. "Who besides you has established a family of seven in India, on the principles of universal love and universal marriage? Who else has got anywhere near such credentials? Besides, you owe me. Who paid for your wedding trip?" He began to laugh again.

      "All right Fred, I'll lay the foundation you want," I said. "When I am finished, girl watching will be deemed the most respectful embrace of the opposite sex."

      Sylvia looked at me with a curious look and then began to smile again.

      "It is a respectful embrace already for me," I defended myself, and I meant it. Watching those girls in their pretty dresses, perhaps they were meeting for dates, going to the movies, or just shopping, or going out for dinner, was like going back to the days when I was looking deep into myself, into my own nature. Like Tony had done, I had acknowledged to myself that I could no longer close my eyes to the all-embracing sense of humanity that included in this case all these girls. The gentle embrace of them had long ago become a part of me. Now I was involved in merely another aspect of it, and I was rejoicing in it. I wondered, though, what would cause Sylvia to understand this.

      A plan came to mind. I replied to our dissenting Englishman; "You talked about falling in love with these girls. Why shouldn't you? Why shouldn't everybody? Why should one deny the loveliness around one, and not respond to it with love. We should celebrate love at every chance we get. Love is divine, profound, the greatest thing in the world; it is generous, kind, enriching and ennobling."

      "I can tell you what love is," said Sylvia. "It is something one cannot define with so many words. However, if one lets it dissolve, the human race dissolves with it. It dissolves into fragmentation, isolation, confrontation, and war. If we choke love to death, mankind dies. It's as simple as that. But if we acknowledge it..."

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Stories about  Healing from novels by Rolf A. F. Witzsche