CHAPTER FORTY

One

I am but one man, one who came to deliver a message, a message perhaps bigger than the man. I am sure I faltered often, but in the end
I hope I succeeded. I had at times been called a dreamer, or a fool. Perhaps. I have no desire to argue. It is just that my mind had seen
something different, from another point of view, and from this sprang an idea that may be an important one. Perhaps this message
should have gone to another, a better mind. I am no great speaker. When I stand before an audience, I am often confused and flustered.
I wield no great power, for which I have no regrets. Rather, I am relieved. I am happy to speak to people personally and singly, to each
one as to my friend. And this is how I wrote the message of Habeas Mentem, one on one, like to a friend.

In the end, we are one planet, one people. Each one of us carries in him or her self a fragment of every other, and this is how we are
joined. For those who will have the opportunity to travel and meet our other lives throughout the world, it will become immediately
obvious. We are not so different from one another. For some reason, we had been living under some spell that, like a dilatorious
planetary fog, has kept us apart and ignorant of each other. We are all one, and I sincerely hope that in the future this uniqueness, of
each one of us, will bring us together into a common bond rather than tear us apart. We are friends, and this is innately born in us.
Witness children. That we later fall out into suspicion and fear is regrettable, most likely a byproduct of an ego that has kept us tied to an
illusion. We are not so different. In me is all of you, as in you is all of me. I do not feel this is so profound a statement. Rather it is
spoken from the heart. Once we are free to love one another, this statement will no longer seem strange or alien to us. We are all born
into this world together, travel together, and then within a short time, die from it together. We are very much together on a small planet.
We are one.

Nor am I a particularly unique person. I am of small to average stature, pleasant of personality but not remarkably so, handsome in my
own way, and mostly quiet and gentle, though I had been known to be otherwise. A person could pass me by in the street without pause.
When I walk into a room, all will not necessarily notice. I have not distinguished myself in any great feats. But nor do I care to. Life is a
miracle enough for me to be happy just being who I am. In the same way, I make no claims on history, do not identify with any of the
great prophets, though I am nominally Catholic, nor do I seek any special attention. My aspirations are simple. I look at the sky and see a
beautiful sunset, or smell the sea at the shore under a full moon with my amore by my side, or go running in the desert in the noon-day
sun with my two wolf-dogs, and I am happy. What else do I need? Generally I identify more with the common person than with the rich
one, and am actually offended by displays of great wealth or prestige. These hold no special appeal to me. In many ways, I prefer the
simple man, or woman, who shines from within with goodness. I am very much taken with the natural beauty of a human being, both
physical and spiritual. I find all life dear and the universe around me filled with wonder. To see them as the Love of God in all things to
me is itself a great pleasure.

So my humble task was merely to record. If I had trespassed beyond this and strayed off into vanity, I hope I will be forgiven. I want to
stay close to the simplicity of things. If it is my lot to be showered with more than I have or need, then I hope that I can regain my
equilibrium and be humble still. I do not reject the good things of the world. It is simply that I do not wish to worship them. Everything
we have flows from the One, and that is where I face. To face in any other direction, I feel would make me less than who I am. I want
to be just this in my life, who I am.

In the end, I hope that I have faithfully recorded the words and thoughts as they came to me. The ego struggles to take over and pull at
the message, but I hope I resisted. Infinity is a very big thing to write about, and the ego, though so necessary for survival in this world,
feels threatened by its greatness and only succeeds in clouding the image. I hope that I have delivered instead a clear message. If so, and
I succeeded, then the reader can glean from it what is meaningful to him or her. That is reward enough. I have written these pages in as
sensitive a way as I knew, to offend no one. I pray I did not fail, nor trespassed on the boundaries of anyone. If I had, then my
apologies. In every page, I swore to write only in the spirit of charity, love of truth, and love of love, as I felt it in my heart at that time.
May it be that God had helped me in all I said.

The message ends here. In this, I have done my utmost to delivery it faithfully and truthfully. In all this, I give you my word.

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HABEAS MENTEM

California at Midnight, July 7, 1998.