Money vs Happiness

This is a clever and true video.  Enjoy!

Looking back, looking forward

The carcasses of spent balloons litter the floor.

Someone rigged the coffee machine with duct tape and an urn receptacle.

Staff shuffle chairs and video equipment in preparation for the afternoon seminar - perhaps a little more slowly than usual.

The post-apocalyptic state of the course room indicates its recent use as a child room.

All indications point to the fact that we had a New Year's event last night!

 What better way to say "Goodbye" to 2012 than to watch as the St. Louis Way to Happiness chapter was acknowledged in a 20-minute segment at the event!

And why not?

The St. Louis chapter has done something that hasn't been done in many other places -

We have now distributed copies of The Way to Happiness to over 20% of the population of the city.  Distribution of the booklet continues right now with the help and participation of both government groups and numerous non-profits.

Barry and Claire have now been asked to speak at an upcoming international convention to help other cities repeat their successful pattern.

2012 was a phenomenal year in other ways as well.

The St. Louis Church doubled the number of auditors and supervisors this year - and every one of our auditors is now Clear or OT.

Adam Heft is back from his training at Flag, on fire and productive.  I'm already getting rave successes from the parishioners who he's overseen, and the auditors are beaming with pride.

The designs and plans of the new building and our test center are now fully done.  Next will be the construction documents, then the permits, and then...

We recently took a group of building fundraising advocates to LA - the second-largest group to ever attend this event - and we all toured the facilities that create the new building plans and toured the Los Angeles church.

I couldn't ask for a better year... or a better group to work with.

Now that we have officially begun 2-0-1-3, let's name some goals to accomplish over the next 365 days.

1.  Continue The Way to Happiness distribution.

Barry and Claire have set a target for 1 million booklets distributed over the coming year.  Distribution of this booklet is always accompanied by a drop in crime - a proven fact.  This is an excellent strategy to lessen the danger of the environment.

2.  Double again the number of supervisors and auditors.  

This target gives the Church a better chance to help more people.  An org is an auditing factory that also trains people to audit.

3.  Finish the tuck pointing and windows in the new building.  Get permits for construction approved by all agencies. 

 The tuck pointing and windows can be done in the spring.  This gives a short-term fundraising goal... and it'll make the building look purty.

4. Double the number of Humanitarians for the Church fundraising project. 

 Humanitarians are the keystones of the fundraising project.  Every new Humanitarian sparks dozens of more participants and additional donations.

I am looking forward to a very productive year with all of my friends.  You are an incredible group of people to work with and I am fortunate to be a part of this group.

Why is he holding an egg?

"Blessed is he who has found his work; let him ask no other blessedness." - Carlyle

"What magnificent fun to be engaged in work which can do so much for so many and where our personal contribution counts for so much.  Give your will, mind, and heart to each great cause in which you are involved.  Though we in this profession represent a diverse group, we are joined together in a calling of tremendous consequence.

"Very few in a lifetime are given the opportunity to make such a substantial difference to society. We are bestowed that role and accept the challenge.

"The immense good we do diminishes the agony of the long hours and disappointments.  There are peaks and valleys, but we remember most the peaks.  We glorify the high leaps.  We celebrate the barrier-breaking new horizons we make possible.  We love our work, and we are sustained and cheered in knowing how immense our contribution is.  We are truly the blessed, fortunate enough to be in this business.  We are the veritable soldiers of change."  
                                                Jerry Panas

To everyone who attended the "Invitation to Freedom" fundraiser on Saturday - please accept my gratitude for a wonderful evening.

Is Easter better than Christmas?

Growing up in an agnostic household, I considered Easter to be a minor holiday.  It sufficed as an excuse to eat candy and go to grandma's for dinner, but it was otherwise unremarkable.  The Easter bunny was a Santa wannabe - perhaps an apprentice to Santa, who was the head holiday honcho.

Make no mistake, I still thought Easter was great.  Any holiday in which the lead role was played by a bigger-than-life altruistic rabbit that delivered baskets of goodies while my sister and I weren't looking trumped the several holidays without such characters.  Easter may have been a shadow Christmas, but it was an improvement over St. Patrick's day, Valentine's day or even Halloween.

Now that I'm a bit older and I have come to a better understanding of the significance of the holidays, I wonder if Easter may not be better in some ways than Christmas as a celebration that can be enjoyed by people of all faiths.

Spring has long been recognized as a time of renewal and rebirth.  It is the time that Persephone returns from her stint as Queen of the Underworld, assuaging her mother's grief and allowing crops to grow once again.  In Egyptian mythology, it is the time that Osiris is reborn.  Many of the symbols that attend the Easter celebration are symbols of fertility and birth.

In my view, however, the Christian celebration of Easter is far more poignant than these other tales.  It is a celebration of the immortality of the spirit - and a demonstration that the spirit lives on, regardless of persecution, abandonment by friends and bodily death.

Holidays are an opportunity for all of us to reflect on the "higher truths."  They give us a chance to lift our heads above the mundane and give some thought to the themes we are creating in our own lives.  What with the intense advertising and expectation that accompanies Christmas, the holiday hardly allows time for reflection.  For this reason, I can't think of a better holiday to give serious thought to such themes as spiritual immortality and the chance at our own "rebirth" from our current condition into a better state than Easter.

Please join me April 7th at 6:30 at our new auditorium.  We will start the evening with snacks, followed by a gospel choir and a further exploration of the concepts I've started to discuss here; and we will end with a round of fundraising to benefit the renovations of our new building.  I promise you will have a great time listening to incredible music, seeing the new auditorium, being with your friends and hopefully learning a thing or two along the way.

Where we belong

This is a wonderful story about the history of Lafayette Square - the future home of our new church.  I love the fact that the people who built up this community and saved it from literal wreckage did so in the face of "reasons" that it wouldn't work.  There is a lesson here that constructive activities are not always recognized as valuable by "the powers that be" or by a middle-class-hold-onto-everything-very-carefully mindset. This history is part of the reason why it is such an honor to have the opportunity to be part of this special community.  Enjoy!

The best Friday story ever

The Huffington Post today posted a story about what may be the greatest statement of appreciation of all time.  

Know that this is how I feel about you... and that's pretty sweet.

Time, Place, Form and... Event!

The Place:
The Missouri History Museum

The People:

The Event:

Mr. Barney Bradshaw, a speaker at the History museum, told several tales of heroism and sacrifice that are an integral part of St. Louis history, Ms. Kathy Jordan received an award from the "Stop the Killing" initiative for her help in bringing The Way to Happiness to the community, and everyone was given an opportunity to give a gift for the future of St. Louis - our new church building.

The Result:

The evening was a rave success.  Thank you to all who attended and gave gifts, and to all who worked to make the event happen as smoothly as it did.  What a marvelous way to kick off the new year!

"Goodness is the only investment that never fails."

- Henry David Thoreau

Oh, the piles of files

My apologies to Dr. Seuss

Oh, the funny things you see
     the many handwriting styles
the promo from 1973
     when handling the piles of files.

Madison can offer a keen eye
      and advice that's loaded with guile -
it's needed as the hours go by
     as you're handling the piles of files

     Here's Chuck, a member of Mensa
             who handles his work by the aisle
     I won't rhyme "Chuck;" it might offends ya,
             but he also works the piles of files.

           Winsome worked all day long
                    Headphones blaring different musical styles
           As she joyously sang along
                    And handled her piles of files.

         

 The "C's" are now in a good state
          and we ended the day in smiles;
 March 25th is the next date    
           To handle more piles of files.






A big "thank you" to the intrepid volunteers who attended the CF party last weekend.  You guys are awesome!  


If anyone would like to volunteer on the project, they should contact Madison Baird.

Man on fire

"Now, it's a funny darn thing.  What do you live for?  You live to help others."

                                                                                - L. Ron Hubbard

I'd like to acknowledge Barry Coziahr, who has been engaged in community outreach for the St. Louis Church of Scientology for nearly 20 years.  The church is now on the cusp of creating some very large positive change in St. Louis, and this is in no small part due to his initiative and activities.

Barry has been working intensively to get The Way to Happiness into the hands of the population of St. Louis.  He has helped get 50,000 of this very powerful booklet donated, printed and distribution begun.  This will be the largest distribution of this booklet ever in the state of Missouri.  The booklet has been so well received that the church was recently given this plaque from the Stop the Killing Initiative, which is distributing the booklets to help calm the raging sea of urban violence in St. Louis.  

As the copies are distributed, other like-minded groups have jumped on board to distribute even more copies.  Again, we've learned that there are many, many people who want to help - so far, mentoring groups, a juvenile detention center and a school have found out about this booklet via its distribution and have, in turn, requested their own booklets be made so that they may distribute them.  By the end of March, all 50,000 will be distributed and we'll be ready to do another 50,000.  

What will be the results of 20% of the population of St. Louis receiving this booklet and reading it?  What will happen when a number of community groups all work together under the banner of The Way to Happiness to promote a common message of peace and mutual understanding?  We are about to find out.

Thank you, Barry, for jumping on this project and bringing help and freedom to untold people.  This is precisely why we are making our Ideal org and you are leading the way. 

Taking Scientology for Granted

Thank you to everyone that has reminded me to post a blog.  I'm glad that you enjoy them.  I will attempt to get back into a regular routine of blog posts soon.


In the meantime, I asked Dr. Everett Mobley to write a guest blog.  He writes a very amusing blog that covers a number of subjects and is consistently well-written.  He responded immediately with the below post, entitled, "Taking Scientology for Granted."  I hope you enjoy it.

Taking Scientology for Granted

“Not me!”, you say.  Well, maybe not… and maybe more than you realize.

Naturally, you appreciate your big wins, as do I.  Scientology restored my health, my marriage, and my career (to say nothing of eliminating 18 years of constant headaches). I am happy to “testify”, as they say in some other churches.

On the other hand, how many times in the past week have you talked about getting in better communicaton, or raising ARC?  How many times have you stopped to clear a word, knowing the importance of doing so, and having the technology to accomplish it?  Did you even have to think about it?

What percentage of the world at large would understand your conversation, or the concepts, or have the technology to apply it?

Perhaps you are so ingrained with these concepts that you don’t feel they are all that special: people understand these things, even if they don’t use the same terminology.  Really?  How about the second grade teacher in my town who gave the smartest girl in class a dictionary?  It seems she was constantly interrupting story time to ask what unfamiliar words mean.  The dictionary shut her right up so the less intelligent kids could get on with the business of accumulating one misunderstood word after another.

When Fran emails each week to ask how I have used the tech, I can always think of at least one definite application.  Heaven knows how many times I used the tech and didn’t even make a note of it – it’s second nature to me now… and possibly to you, too.

And yet, it is the merest accident that I ever found Scientology in the first place.  I was in a downward spiral on all my dynamics.  My own analysis found a lack of business administration technology as the “why”. By chance, I chose Sterling Management to pursue some education in that field.  There, I was confronted with the fact that my ruin was considerably deeper than my lack of business know-how.

I went directly from Sterling to do my Life Repair and found that my basic problems could all be handled, handled fully and handled permanently.  It was a happy accident indeed.

How did you find Scientology?  A friend? A relative? A search for truth? A happy accident?   Is that how we will salvage our planet?

Maybe you don’t personally need an Ideal Org, right here, right now.  There are a hell of a lot of people who do.  If you’ve forgotten how it felt to be one of them, try to remember it for a moment.  Is there enough money in the world to pay you to return to that state?  Not for me, there isn’t.

Putting an Ideal Org in St. Louis will not happen by accident --  you will do it on purpose, You will make Scientology easy to find for those people who need it so desperately, and whose accidents have not been so happy.

Contemplata tradere

"Contemplata tradere" is a bit of Latin that I will translate for you at the end of this blog.

I would like to review our wins from 2011 and look forward to our goals of 2012.

Organizational structure


I started 2011 with an evaluation which examined the possible reasons why our church had been pinned at a certain size for a number of years.  The "why" found was somewhat surprising, and the handling took almost a year to put into place, and is now nearly done.

I thought that some of you would be very interested in what was found - if you aren't one of those people, go ahead and skip to the next section.

For years, the St. Louis church had maintained about 40 - 50 staff.  It would gradually gain to about 50, then shrink to 40, then back to 50, etc.  However, we know that to impact our society and clear the planet, many more staff than this will be needed.

The "why" discovered was that the executives and staff of the church considered that they were part of a full-full time organization - something which does not actually exist anywhere in policy.  The St. Louis church has for years considered itself a "full-full time org."  Those of you who have been on staff in the past will recognize this term - "full-full time."  What this meant was that the church has been open from 8:30 in the morning to 10:00 at night, and open on the weekends as well.  The staff of the church either worked this schedule, fitting in days off and study as could be arranged, or if they were unable to attend this schedule, they worked out entirely different schedules.  This lead to a madhouse of disorganization.

Ron says that a team "has a tendency to know what the other team members are doing and thinking, and coordinates thereby and therewith..." however, this coordination was impossible, as the members of the staff team were frequently covering for each other for needed time off and study.  No one was on the same schedule.  In fact, in the course of the investigation portion of this evaluation, I discovered that during the course of a week, I had up to 25 direct juniors at one time - an untenable position.

Once the problem was clearly seen, the solution became obvious - make the church function according to the policy which had been written about schedules - i.e., create a day and foundation organization.

After this discovery, we closely read existing policy regarding church schedules.  Originally, Churches of Scientology were open normal business hours - Monday through Friday 9 - 6.  Then, Ron had the bright idea of enabling the Church to service local people who worked during the day by starting a separate organization, called "the Foundation," which was open nights and weekends and staffed with a different group of people.  "Full-full time" isn't actually a word and isn't located anywhere in the policies about how a church functions.

The St. Louis Church of Scientology was founded after this pattern had already been established, but instead of forming two groups of staffs as Ron said to do, the executives of the church at that time just made up a schedule that dictated that the staffs work all the time.  While I admire their dedication, this is an unworkable solution to the degree that it does not conform with existing policy.

You can imagine the confusion that needed to be confronted and work that had to be done to enable the proper creation of two shifts of staff.  This is now nearly completed, and Matt Hanses, Kevin Forney, Amy Hanses and Barry Coziahr are providing excellent leadership to the night and weekend crew.

No amount of organization, however, is valid without a commensurate increase in production.  Did this organization better our reach into society and help us achieve the aims of Scientology?

Public outreach - Dianetics


More people completed the Dianetics Auditor course this year than in any previous year in the history of our church.  In fact, when I added up the completions, I discovered that we actually completed more Dianetics auditors this year than in the previous 10 years combined.

Dianetics auditing hours were also highest-ever this year.  We now have groups auditing in St. Louis who are auditing in 1 month more hours than used to be done all year in the entire St. Louis field.

Public outreach - the internet


This year, we released our new website, http://scientologymissouri.org/  If you haven't checked it out yet, do so.  It is a great resource for people who want to know what Scientology is and what our church in St. Louis does.

People are directed to the site via google ads and facebook ads.  They can now do personality tests via the site and schedule their own appointments to do the evaluations - all on-line.  Whenever someone sets an appointment, Myndi is immediately alerted via her phone.  Pretty high tech!  More importantly, dozens of people have now started Scientology services for the first time and have bought books as a result of this dissemination.

Matt Hanses sorted this out from a point of complete non-existence.  Within a few months, he has helped move the church's dissemination efforts into the new century, one reason among several that he was the obvious choice to be my foundation counterpart.

Helping our community  - resolving the dangerous environment 


Thanks in a large part to the donation of Way to Happiness educator kits by Kathy Jordan, Missouri leading the way in interest generated for getting The Way to Happiness programs being done in schools across the state.  In addition to this, and in cooperation with the "Stop the Killing" initiative, 50,000 copies of The Way to Happiness are now being distributed in St. Louis city with tremendous positive feedback.  This is the largest distribution of The Way to Happiness that has ever occurred in the Midwest, and once completed, will get The Way to Happiness into the hands of nearly 20% of the population of our city.  We are taking St. Louis off the list of the United States' most dangerous cities.

Central Files


A group of volunteers now arrives every few days to work on updating the files of the Church.  Madison Baird decided to take this project on and the group has made major headway in just a few months.  Eric Fischer joined staff a few weeks ago and has now taken on the hat of "Central Files Officer," ensuring that this huge undertaking receives the constant create it needs to get done.

Building fundraising


We passed two major milestones this year on our fundraising.  We paid for our designs and planning.  This is a major subproduct required for the completion of the building, and every one of our donors and volunteers deserve a big "bravo" for getting this done.

The rehabilitation of the entryway and auditorium of 2345 Lafayette were also completed this year - just in time for the Lafayette Square holiday tour.  1424 people toured through our new auditorium in 8 hours, many of whom said they would return for the grand opening.  We also passed our 600 holiday-themed Way to Happiness.

2012 goals


1.  Finish the fundraising for the renovations of our building.

2.  Finish updating the files of the church.

3.  Distribute The Way to Happiness to 20% of the population of St. Louis

4.  Triple the number of auditors and supervisors on post - starting with the return of Adam Heft as our new Class VI case supervisor.

I reserve the right to add more goals as I think of them!

"Contemplata Tredare"...

...means to pass on to others the things contemplated.  Saint Thomas Aquinas discussed this concept when he said, "Just as it is greater to illuminate something than merely to shed light, so it is greater to pass on to others what we have contemplated, than just to contemplate."  


It isn't enough to have our own personal gains and then "think happy thoughts" for others.  Rather, we must work to illuminate something outside of ourselves.  This is why our staff and volunteers continue to work to finish our new building and bring this technology to others as well as themselves.

Welcome to 2012, my friends.  I hope that this year is your best year ever.

It's not too late to participate

Thank you to everyone who has decided already to help out with the Holiday Parlour Tour in Lafayette Square on December 11th.  Winnie is still looking for several additional volunteers.  Details about the tour itself can be found here.

We will have an opportunity to show our new neighbors the newly-rehabbed auditorium and meet a few thousand people in one day.

I also have several tickets for the tour itself if you are interested.

Please let me or Winnie know within the next few days if you are able to assist with this event.  I also ask that you pass this information on to the Scientologists in your email lists who might want to help.  It's lining up to be a great afternoon with some of your best friends.

Holiday spirit

What is holiday spirit?  What causes that rare sensation of goodwill and contentment that sums up the month of December?

Is it the hope of getting presents?  No.  We receive presents at different times of the year, but it doesn't cause us to be nicer to people.

Is it getting awesome deals during black Friday?  Definitely not.  One shopper pepper sprayed another on her way to a deal this year.

Do the music and decorations remind us of past pleasure moments and so compel us to happiness?  No.  Squawks of protest at the trees in Wal-mart on November 1st tell us year-round decorations and music wouldn't save the world, and we are more than happy to take these things down in January.

This is a good question to resolve.  In conversations with friends, I've often heard that the world would be a better place if we could just keep the "holiday spirit" all year around.  This is true... but how do we do this?  The secret to being able to maintain this sort of positive response to life would rely heavily on pinpointing its cause.

Wise men and women throughout the ages have already provided the answer to this question - we don't need to reinvent the wheel, we just need to use those which were already painstakingly created.  The key is noticing that the feelings of contentment and goodwill are not created externally.  They are not the result of being the effect of positive things, but rather, causing them.  

During the holiday season, when we take our inspiration from the great religious leaders of the past and do charity for others or treat them with kindness, we feel happier because it are these actions of caring and charity that create happiness - not just for other people, but for ourselves.  However, if we believe that our happiness was the result of the trees now wilted and the snow which has turned to slush, our "holiday spirit" will fade, along with the faded tinsel and trees.

Listen to the words of George Eliot.  "It is only a poor sort of happiness that could ever come by caring very much about our own narrow pleasures.  We can only have the highest happiness such as goes along with true greatness by having wide thoughts and much feeling for the rest of the world as well as ourselves.  This special sort of happiness often brings so much pain with it that we can only tell it from pain by its being what we would choose above everything else, because our souls see that it is good."

As human beings, it is our privilege to be allowed to help others.  When we omit these actions and concentrate only on "helping ourselves," we actually abandon the only activities which would create our own happiness.  The holidays give us an opportunity to remember one again and to practice the true route to happiness.

 

Who are you calling a monkey?

I'd like to recommend to you "Ramayana: Divine Loophole," which is a beautiful retelling of an Indian poem that is 2500 years old.  In it, we learn about the battles between the ten-headed demon Ravana (whose name means, "the one who makes the universe scream") and Rama, who is a human incarnation of the god Vishnu.

Before he was a demon, Ravana was a scholar who meditated for 10,000 years.  All that staring at his navel made him a bit batty, and when he achieved his goal from the meditation, he went on a rampage; disrupting cosmic order.  

It had been ordained that he couldn't be killed by god or demon, so he wreaked havoc with impunity.  The gods perceived they were in a mess and appealed to Vishnu, the god of justice for help.

Vishnu thought about the predicament, and came to the conclusion that although the demon could not be destroyed by god or demon, he could be destroyed by an animal or a human, and so allowed himself to be born in human form.  

Vishnu was born as Rama, a prince in a prosperous kingdom.  He and his brother, Lakshman, became best friends and compatriots in numerous adventures.  They were intensely devoted to each other.

Eventually, the time came to destroy Ravana.  Rama and his brother befriended everyone they could to participate in the coming battle.

Rama quickly became friends with the king of the monkeys who, as it turns out, also happened to be a god who had forgotten his powers.

The king of the monkeys soon became Rama's right-hand man in the battle against the ten-headed demon.

The demon, Ravana, was a deadly foe.  He could see in any direction and just by himself was more than a match for the armies.  

On the battlefield, Ravana sought Rama's brother and pierced him with a poison arrow.  Rama was so upset by the impending loss of his brother that he all but gave up the fight.  It looked like Ravana would rule the universe.

However, the monkey king realized that if he could find the right herbs, he could save the brother's life and Rama could return to the fight.  He flew to a mountain and searched for the right herbs, but was surprised to see thousands of plants that he didn't recognize.

He had to get the right herb to Rama - but which one?  There was only time for one trip.

In response to this dilemma, the monkey king  picked up the whole mountain and brought it back to Rama and his brother, thereby saving the life of the person most dear to Rama and allowing him to continue on and win.

I love this story.  It is a story of devotion and demonstrates that no individual - even a reincarnated god - survives alone.

I'm fortunate to work with several people who, like the monkey king in the story, would move mountains to achieve our goals.  You know who you are.

The images in this blog were taken from "Ramayana: Divine Loophole" by Sanjay Patel.  It has become one of Allie's favorite picture books - and I have read it a number of times.  Highly recommended.

What is better in the morning than coffee?

I received this email at 5:30 this morning... It was better than a cup of coffee.  

Hi Chad,

I just woke up before the alarm went off this morning and had a huge realization that I have not made a contribution to the general operations of the Org in a long time.  We have events to raise money for the building and for charitable activities across the dynamics, but what about the day-to-day operations of the Church and helping out our own nearly-volunteer-yet-working-full-time staff?

This is the place that I get to hang out with incredible, up-tone people.

This is the place that helps me learn the tools to live a better life and grow stronger.

This is the place that reaches out and provides hope to others with the Tech to improve their lives.

This is where I met and married my incredible partner. 

This is the place that feeds my spirit.

Today, I cannot make a huge gift, but I will contribute an ample amount; and I will continue to make a donation every month for this purpose; not because I have to, nor because I should, but because it is absolutely the right thing to do.

And I hope that others can have this same kind of realization for themselves.

And then act on it.  Often. 

 It is the action that produces results.

Thanks to you, the Staff and LRH for your unwavering dedication to the Truth.

Keep up the good work and fighting the good fight.

Mankind needs your level of dedication.

Flourish and Prosper,

[name omitted to protect the innocent]

Drum roll please

The B's are done!

Bet you think they look beautiful!

What's next?!

Ask any preschooler...

The C's!

Come one, come all and catch CF fever as we congregate to complete a concatenation of filing.

Contact Madison for details, or just Come on in.

 - Chad

How do you eat an elephant?

How do you eat an elephant?

First, some specs:

Elephants are the largest land animals in the world.  

Elephants can weigh up to 14,000 pounds - the equivalent of 5 Porsche Boxsters.

If an elephant had to find a skirt for the prom, she would need to locate a size 162.

If an elephant fell off the vegetarian wagon, he would consume 800 Big Macs a day and still have plenty of room for as many orders of  fries.

So... How do you eat an elephant?

For one thing, you'd have to be pretty interested in accomplishing your task.  Once you started, you'd have to keep going.  It would look at times that you were never going to get through that thing.  

Ron describes this in the article, Happiness and Interest. He says, "Believe me, it takes a lot of interest to get you through the task of digging half a mountain away to find some gold or sawing down a redwood tree. (And they didn't used to have saws when they first cut those things down; they had very bad axes.)  It takes a lot of interest to keep a fellow at a job all the way through."

This doesn't quite answer the question, though, does it?  I mean, where does that interest come from?  There is no prize at the end of our entree - just the satisfaction of a job well(?) done.  Maybe elephants don't taste too good... 

Further in the same article, Ron says, "Interest is not at fault.  It isn't because a person has become interested in things and then had been disabused and betrayed and so had to withdraw from them. That is not what is wrong with the person.  It is simply that he failed to keep on generating interest in what he was doing."

Apparently, we have to generate interest in our plate of pachyderm.  It is not a question of whether it is good or bad or whether we've already made elephant stew over and over again.  Instead, it is simply a question of whether or not we are willing to keep at it until it's done.

Although I hadn't thought of it before just now, I guess this could apply to any large undertaking - not just eating an elephant, but even such things as raising the money to renovate a 60,000 square foot building!

The good news is that generating the interest for a large undertaking is not as arduous and dull as it may seem.  Rather, generating interest  is the key to happiness.  As Ron says, "Well, the clue to happiness is being interested in life.  People's happiness is as great as they can create it.  They will not experience happiness from any other quarter than their own generation.  They will get the amount of happiness that they can generate...  The anatomy back of it is simply this: how much interest can a person generate, and can he generate enough interest to get him over all the heavy energy which has to be invested along the line.  It is how much interest he can generate himself, how much he himself can keep interested in life that makes him happy.  Because happiness is application of self to existence.  That is all there is to happiness."

So, how do you eat an elephant?

Happily, one bite at a time.

It's art!

Your help

is needed for 

Lafayette Square

Parlor tour

12 Scientologists needed as assistants

for one day.

Duties will include:

Passing out cider and cookies

Passing out The Way to Happiness

Spreading Holiday cheer

at the largest "parlor" 

on display.

This will be the first time that the Church of Scientology of Missouri will open the doors of its newly-renovated auditorium to the general public.  Come help make it an amazing day!  Email me if you would like to participate. 

We will now pause for a public service announcement

Chuck sent this in response to yesterday's blog.  I am reprinting it here as a public service.

What am I Thankful for?

I’m thankful that my wife of twenty-five years is my best friend and support. I’m thankful we both create our relationship. When I was younger and yearning for a good partner, I never thought it would be like this. Wonderful!

I’m thankful for all the create that the St. Louis org staff does - day after day – putting an org here in St. Louis. And a good one too!

I’m thankful for the Golden Age of Knowledge and all of the work that was put into it by those who brought it out and all the work by staff in getting it out. What a product. Back in the day just one tiny part of it would have been drooled over by staff and public. All of it together? Fabulous!

I’m thankful for the Golden Age of Tech. This is the best training lineup - by far! - that I’ve ever seen in my 38 years in Scientology. And that’s coming from a tech person!

I’m thankful to see the 3^rd & 4^th dynamics wins Scientologists are making in the world. The inroads that The Way to Happiness, Applied Scholastics, Narconon, Youth for Human Rights, Volunteer Ministers and Citizen's Commission for Human Rights activities are causing are amazing.

Chuck Ridenour

It never gets old

"I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought, and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder."  G.K. Chesterton

A crisp wind blows the remaining leaves from the trees and batters against the windows on the third floor of the church.  The squirrels have packed on the pounds and the fur on their tails heralds a more permanent change in the weather. Schnucks is selling candy canes.  Thanksgiving approaches!

I enjoy Thanksgiving immensely.  It is a final moment of rest before the end-of-year frenzy and hopefully, a moment to reflect with friends and family upon the wonder of "everyday" life.  The premise for the holiday - that of giving thanks - helps to remind us that gratitude is, indeed, the highest form of thought; and that wonder at life is a much more appropriate emotion than cynicism.  This is easy to forget when we are daily immersed in constant demands for our attention in the forms of advertising and a news media that treats the trivial as though it were immediate and threatening.

I have much to be thankful for.  My wife has now lived with me for over ten years and somehow still enjoys my company.  My daughter, despite being deaf, has learned to read and write well and "sets the standard for the rest of her peers." (this is a coded term, meaning that she is bossy.)   This is the result of a tremendous amount of patience, work and donations from myriad people.  And, I don't like to brag, but the parishioners and staff of my church are the best in the world.  They make my job easy and a joy.

What are you thankful for?  How would your life be different were it not for the people and groups who surround you?

Email your responses to me at themidwestrocks@gmail.com or post them in the comments below.  I am very interested in hearing from you.