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[90] SECOND INITIATION: (Baptism),
[91] THIRD INITIATION: (Transfiguration),
[92] FOURTH INITIATION: (Crucifixion),
[Page 209]
(1) Once the second initiation is taken the progress will be rapid, the third and fourth following probably in the same life, or the succeeding.
The second initiation forms the crisis in the control of the astral body. Just as, at the first initiation, the control of the dense physical has been demonstrated, so here the control of the astral is similarly demonstrated. The sacrifice and death of desire has been the goal of endeavour. Desire itself has been dominated by the Ego, and only that is longed for which is for the good of the whole, and in the line of the will of the Ego, and of the Master. The astral elemental is controlled, the emotional body becomes pure and limpid, and the lower nature is rapidly dying. At this time the Ego grips afresh the two lower vehicles and bends them to his will. The aspiration and longing to serve, love, and progress become so strong that rapid development is usually to be seen. This accounts for the fact that this initiation and the third, frequently (though not invariably) follow each other in one single life. At this period of the world's history such stimulus has been given to evolution that aspiring souls - sensing the dire and crying need of humanity - are sacrificing all in order to meet that need.
Again, we must not make the mistake of thinking that all this follows in the same invariable consecutive steps and stages. Much is done in simultaneous unison, for the labour to control is slow and hard, but in the interim between the first three initiations, some definite point in the evolution of each of the three lower vehicles has to be attained and held, before the further expansion of the channel can be safely permitted. Many of us are working on all the three bodies now, as we tread the Probationary Path. (1 - 84/5).
(2) The second initiation marks the crisis of the control of the astral body. (4 - 353).
(3) In order to take the second initiation (the disciple) must demonstrate emotional control; he realises also that he must have some knowledge of those spiritual energies which will dissipate glamour, plus an understanding of the technique whereby illumination from the mind - as the transmitting agent of the light of the soul - can dispel these glamours, and thus "clarify the atmosphere", in the technical sense.
I might emphasise that as yet no initiate demonstrates complete control during the intermediate period between any initiation and the next higher [Page 210] initiation; the intermediate period is regarded as "a cycle of perfecting". That which is being left behind and subordinated to the higher realisation, is slowly dominated by energies which are to be released into the consciousness of the initiate, at the initiation for which he is being prepared. This interim period is always one of great difficulty . . .
The initiatory process between the first and second initiations, is for many the worst time of distress, difficulty, realisation of problems, and the constant effort to "clear himself" (as it is occultly called), to which the disciple is at any time subjected. The phrase stating that the objective of the initiate is "to clear himself" is perhaps the most arresting and illuminating of all possible definitions of the task to be undertaken. The storm aroused by his emotional nature, the dark clouds and mists in which he constantly walks, and which he has created throughout the entire cycle of incarnated living, have all to be cleared away in order that the initiate can say that - for him - the astral plane no longer exists, and that all that remains of that ancient and potent aspect of his being, is aspiration, a sensitive response to all forms of divine life, and a form through which the lowest aspect of divine love, goodwill, can flow without impediment. (18 - 577/8).
It should be remembered that the masses of men can and will take the first initiation, but that a very large group of aspirants (far larger than is realised) will pass through the experience of the second initiation, that of the purifying Baptism. (18 - 579).
(4) Members of the New Group of World Servers should watch with care for all those who show signs of having passed through the "birth" experience, and should help them toward a greater maturity. They should assume that all those who truly love their fellowmen, who are interested in the esoteric teaching, and who seek to discipline themselves in order to attain greater beauty of life, are initiate, and have undergone the first initiation. When they discover those who are seeking mental polarisation, and who evidence a desire and aspiration to think and to know, coupled with the distinguishing marks of those who have taken the first initiation, they can, in all probability, safely assume that such people have taken the second initiation, or are on the verge of so doing. Their duty will then be clear. It is by this close observation on the part of the world servers, that the ranks of the New Group are filled. Today, the opportunity and the stimulation are so great, that all servers must keep alert, developing in themselves the ability to register the quality for which search must be made, and giving the help and guidance which will weld into one co-operative band [Page 211] those disciples and initiates who should prepare the way for the Christ. (18 -667).
(5) This second initiation - as now undergone - is to some extent one of the most difficult. It involves purification, but it is purification by fire, symbolically understood. The occult "application of fire to water" produces certain most serious and devastating results. The water, under the action of fire, "is resolved into steam, and the initiate is immersed in the fogs and miasmas, the glamours and the mists" thus caused. Out of this fog and out of the glamours, the initiate must emerge; out of the present fog of human affairs humanity will also emerge eventually. (18 - 675).
(6) What is the basic goal of the initiate who has taken the second initiation? . . . What, therefore, lies ahead of the initiate who has entered the purificatory water, or rather, fire? To what is he pledged? . . . At the close of the initiatory process, certain energies and divine aspects should be recognised by him as now playing a part in his thinking and his purposes - energies which heretofore (even if present) were quiescent and not controlling.
Before him lies the third Initiation of the Transfiguration. Facing him is a great transition from an emotional aspirational focus, to an intelligent, thinking focus. He has, theoretically at least, cast off the control of the astral body and nature; much still remains to be done; old desires, ancient astral reactions and habitual emotions are still powerful, but he has developed a new attitude to them, and a new perspective to the astral body. Water, fire, steam, glamour, delusion, misinterpretation and emotional continuity, still mean something specific and undesirable to him. He is now negative to their appeal, and positive to the higher demanding focus. That which he now loves and longs for, desires and plans for, lies in another and higher dimension. He has, through his willingness to pass through the second initiation, struck the first blow at his innate selfishness, and has demonstrated his determination to think in wider and more inclusive terms. The group begins to mean more to him than himself.
. . . At the second initiation, he is granted a vision of a higher focus, and his place in the larger whole, begins slowly to reveal itself. A new creativity, and a new focus become his immediate goals, and for him life can never again be the same. The old physical attitudes and desires may still at times assume control; selfishness may continue to play a potent part in his life expression, but - underlying these, and subordinating them - will be found a deep dissatisfaction about things as they are, and an agonising realisation of failure. It is at this point that the disciple begins to learn the uses of [Page 212] failure, And to know certain fundamental distinctions between that which is natural and objective, and that which is supernatural and subjective. (18 - 677/8).
(7) The three keynotes for the second initiation are: Dedication. Glamour. Devotion. . . . Dedication, resulting in glamour, which is dissipated by devotion. (18 - 682/3).
(8) The longest period between initiations is that to be found between the first and the second initiations. This is a truth which must be faced, but it should also be remembered that it is by no means the hardest period. The hardest period for the sensitive, feeling aspirant, is to be found between the second and the third initiations.
It is a period of intense suffering, of the penalty of applying factors of glamour and illusion, of pronounced involvement in situations which, for a long time, remain unclarified, and of a steady moving forward as best the beleaguered aspirant can - under the influence of right direction and spiritual determination. This he has usually to do in the dark, working under the action of the logical and understanding mind, but seldom under the influence of inspiration. Nevertheless, the good work goes on. The emotions are brought under control, and necessarily the factor of the mind assumes an increasingly right importance. Light - flickering and as yet uncertain and unpredictable - pours occasionally in from the soul, via the mind, adding frequently to the complications, but producing eventually the needed control which will lead to and result in freedom.
Ponder on these things. Freedom.is the keynote of the individual who is facing the second initiation and its aftermath - preparation for the third initiation. Freedom is the keynote for the world disciple today, and it is freedom to live, freedom to think, and freedom to know and plan, which humanity demands at this time. (18 - 683/4).
(9) Many, many long lives can elapse between the first initiation and the second - long, long interludes of silent and almost unapparent growth. (5 - 94).
(10) The second initiation is a profoundly difficult one to take. For those upon the first or second rays of aspect it is probably the most difficult of them all. (6 - 525).
[Page 213]
( Transfiguration)
(1) After the second initiation the teaching shifts up a plane. The initiate learns to control his mental vehicle; he develops the capacity to manipulate thought matter, and learns the laws of creative thought building. He functions freely on the four lower sub-planes of the mental plane, and before the third initiation he must - consciously or unconsciously - be complete master of the four lower sub-planes in the three planes of the three worlds . . .
At the third initiation, termed sometimes the Transfiguration, the entire personality is flooded with light from above. It is only after this initiation that the Monad is definitely guiding the Ego, pouring His divine life ever more into the prepared and cleansed channel . . . (1 - 86).
(2) Again a vision is accorded of what lies ahead; the initiate is in a position at all times to recognise the other members of the Great White Lodge. . . . The aim of all development is the awakening of the spiritual intuition; when this has been done, when the physical body is pure, the astral stable and steady, and the mental body controlled, then the initiate can safely wield and wisely use the psychic faculties for the helping of the race. Not only can he use these faculties, but he is able now to create and vivify thoughtforms that are clear and well defined, pulsating with the spirit of service and not controlled by lower mind or desire. These thought-forms will not be (as in the case with those created by the mass of men) disjointed, unconnected, and uncorrelated, but will attain a fair measure of synthesis. Hard and ceaseless must the work be before this can be done, but when the desire nature has been stabilised and purified, then the control of the mind-body comes more easily. Hence the path of the devotee is easier in some ways than that of the intellectual man, for he has learnt the measures of purified desire, and progresses by the requisite stages. (1 - 87).
(3) This third initiation is . . . the first initiation, from the angle of the Hierarchy; it is the one in which the spiritual man demonstrates his complete control of the personality. The physical body has been controlled through the medium of the physical disciplines; the emotional nature has been reorganised and made receptive to spiritual impression coming from the plane of pure reason (the buddhic plane), through the transforming processes of the mind, or the fifth principle. In this connection, the mind has acted as an organiser of astral reaction, and as dispeller of glamour.
[Page 214]
The disciple is now focussed in his every-day consciousness upon the mental plane, and the triangular relation of the three aspects of the mind upon this plane, is now dominant. (18 - 597/8).
(4) At the third initiation the control of the soul-illumined mind is finally established, and the soul itself assumes the dominant position and not the phenomenal form. All the limits of the form nature are then transcended. (18 - 674).
(5) The first three major initiations have always to be taken when in a physical body and upon the physical plane, thus demonstrating initiate consciousness through both mind and brain. This is a point not oft emphasised and sometimes contradicted. (5 - 95).
(1) Before the fourth initiation can be taken, the work of training is intensified, and the hastening and accumulation of knowledge has to be unbelievably rapid. The initiate has frequent access to the library of occult books, and after this initiation he can contact not only the Master with Whom he is linked and with Whom he has worked consciously for a long time, but he can contact and assist (in measure) the Chohans, the Bodhisattva, and the Manu.
He has also to grasp the laws of the three lower planes intellectually, and likewise wield them for the aiding of the scheme of evolution. He studies the cosmic plans and has to master the charts; he becomes versed in occult technicalities and develops fourth dimensional vision, if he has not already done so. He learns to direct the activities of the building devas, and at the same time, he works continually at the development of his spiritual nature . . .
The life of the man who takes the fourth initiation, or the Crucifixion, is usually one of great sacrifice and suffering. It is the life of the man who makes the Great Renunciation, and even exoterically it is seen to be strenuous, hard, and painful. He has laid all, even his perfected personality, upon the altar of sacrifice, and stands bereft of all. All is renounced, friends, money, reputation, character, standing in the world, family, and even life itself. (1 - 88/9).
(2) After the fourth initiation . . . the initiate is admitted into closer fellowship in the Lodge, and his contact with the devas is more complete.
[Page 215]
He is rapidly exhausting the resources of the Hall of Wisdom, and is mastering the most intricate plans and charts. He becomes adept in the significance of colour and sound, can wield the law in the three worlds, and can contact his Monad with more freedom than the majority of the human race can contact their Egos. He is in charge, also, of large work, teaching many pupils, aiding in many schemes, and is gathering under him those who are to assist him in future times. This refers only to those who stay to help humanity on this globe . . . (1 - 90).
(3) When a man takes the fourth Initiation, he functions in the fourth plane vehicle, the buddhic, and has escaped permanently from the personality ring-pass-not.
This great act of renunciation (the fourth Initiation), marks the moment when the disciple has nothing in him which relates him to the three worlds of human evolution. His contact with those worlds in the future, will be purely voluntary, and for the purpose of service. (18 - 696).
(4) Since he first put his foot upon the Path, he has been trying to build the antahkarana. Even that has meant for him an act of faith, and he proceeds in the early stages with the work of building, yet scarcely knowing what he does. He follows blindly the ancient rules, and attempts to accept as factual that which has not been proven to him to be a fact, but which is testified to by countless thousands down the ages. The whole process is in the nature of a culminating triumph of that innate sense of Deity, which has driven man forward from the most primitive experiences and physical adventures, to this great adventure of constructing a pathway for himself, from the dense material world into the spiritual. These higher spiritual energies have hitherto been recognised by him through their effects; now he has to learn to handle them, first of all, by letting them pour into and through him, via the antahkarana, and then to direct them towards the immediate objective of the divine plan.
Hitherto he has worked primarily with the thread of consciousness; this is anchored in the head, and through that consciousness his personality and his soul are linked together until he has become a soul-infused personality; he has then attained unity with his higher self. Through the building of the antahkarana, another thread is added to the soul-infused personality, and the true spiritual individual is linked with, and comes under the direction of the Spiritual Triad. At the fourth initiation, the soul body, the causal body (so called) disappears, and the thread of consciousness is occultly snapped; neither the soul body, nor the thread, are any longer required; they become now only the symbols of a non-existent duality. The [Page 216] soul is no longer the repository of the consciousness aspect as hitherto. All that the soul has stored up of knowledge, science, wisdom and experience (garnered in the life cycle of many aeons of incarnation), are now the sole possession of the individual spiritual man. He transfers them into the higher correspondence of the sensory perceptive apparatus, the instinctual nature, on the three planes of the three worlds.
Nevertheless he still possesses awareness of all the past events, and knows now why he is what he is; much of the information anent the past he discards; it has served its purpose, leaving him with the residue of experienced wisdom. His life takes on a new colouring, totally unrelated to the three worlds of his past experience. He, the sum total of that past, faces new spiritual adventures, and has now to tread the Path which leads him away from normal human evolution, on to the Way of the Higher Evolution. This new experience he is well equipped to face. (18 - 710/1).
(1) The objective of all inner training, is to develop the esoteric sense, and to unfold that inner sensitive awareness, which will enable a man to function, not only as a Son of God in physical incarnation, but as one who also possesses that continuity of consciousness which will enable him to be interiorly awake as well as exteriorly active. This is accomplished through developing the power to be a trained Observer. (4 - 609).
(2) My underlying motive is ever the same: to indicate the way of living process, and to stimulate that divine curiosity, and that sense of outgoing spiritual adventure and eager aspiration for progress which is latent in all disciples and which, when stimulated, will enable them to proceed more serenely and sanely upon the Path of Return. Otherwise the practical value of that which I seek to impart is of no real importance at all. (16 - 202).
(3) Increasingly must your inner life be lived upon the mental plane. Steadily and without descent must the attitude of meditation be held - not for a few minutes each morning or at specific moments throughout the day, but constantly, all day long. It infers a constant orientation to life, and the handling of life from the angle of the soul. This does not refer to what is so often referred to as "turning one's back upon the world". The disciple faces the world but he faces it from the level of the soul, looking clear-eyed upon the world of human affairs. "In the world, yet not of the world" [Page 217] is the right attitude - expressed for us by the Christ. Increasingly must the normal and powerful life of the emotional, astral, desire and glamorous nature be controlled and rendered quiescent by the life of the soul, functioning through the mind. The emotions which are normally self-centred and personal, must be transmuted into the realisations of universality and impersonality; the astral body must become the organ through which the love of the soul can pour; desire must give place to aspiration and that, in its turn, must be merged in the group life and the group good; glamour must give place to reality, and the pure light of the mind must pour into all the dark places of the lower nature. (5 - 50).
(4) As you extend your power to grasp the needed lessons and learn to train your minds to think in ever wider and more abstract terms, you draw from me a correspondingly adequate instruction. The limitation to the imparted truth lies on your side and not on mine. (6 - 10).
"What is the standing or value of inoculation or vaccination, from an occult or esoteric standpoint?" This question is often in the minds of healers as they ask the further question, which is the real basis of their interest, "Does it affect the subtler bodies? How?"
There is no occult standard or value in inoculation, any more than there is an occult standard or value in giving a hypodermic injection. The entire question concerning serums and inoculations has been tremendously overemphasised by the so-called occult students. The human body, at the present time, is the recipient of such a vast amount of substance, extraneously precipitated into the interior of the body, that the whole subject is of vaster import, yet of lesser importance, than men think. Such is the paradox which I present to you. Wrong food of every kind, the inhalation of smoke down the centuries, the breathing in of tainted air, the taking of medicines and pills and tablets of every possible description, the rifling of the vegetable and mineral kingdoms in search of their ingredients, and the injection of mineral substances, of drugs and of serums, till one wonders sometimes at the remarkable assimilative powers of the human frame.
In all fairness, however, I would remind you that, as far as the physical well-being of man is concerned, these methods and techniques of the West, have resulted in the production of a healthier race than in the East, in a very definite prolongation of human life, and in the elimination of many [Page 218] dire physical scourges, which used to take their toll of man. This I, an Oriental, do admit. I have stated the situation thus in order to expand your view from the specific to the whole.
In relation to disease and inoculation, I would remind you that there are three groups of diseases which are not peculiar to man, but which are indigenous in the planet itself. These diseases are found in widely differing forms, in all the kingdoms of nature. These three families or groups of diseases are:
1. The great cancer group of diseases.
2. The syphilitic group.
3. Tuberculosis.
Most of the objections made by the doctors with occult tendencies, are based unconsciously on a feeling that there should be higher methods of controlling diseases in man, than by injecting into the human body substance taken from the bodies of animals. That is most surely and definitely correct, and some day it will be demonstrated. Another reaction on their part is one of sensitive disgust, again largely unrecognised. A more vital objection should be based on the suffering entailed on the animals providing the vaccine and other substances.
The effect on the inner bodies is practically nil, and far less than the diseases themselves. Herein lies for the future a most interesting question. How far do diseased conditions in the human body, carry through and affect the inner bodies from the structural angle? It is a question I do not intend to answer. The controlling of modern disease is being handled by modern medicine, primarily in three ways: through the science of sanitation, through preventive medicine, and through inoculation. These are the lower correspondences to methods of activity emanating from the astral plane, from the etheric levels, and from the earth itself.
The science of sanitation, the use of water, and the growing knowledge of hydrotherapy, are the precipitation on earth of certain inner activities on the astral plane, of a most definite nature. From the angle of the aspirant, these methods are called purification.
The science of prevention (both of diseases and of death) is the precipitation on earth of certain modes of procedure on the etheric plane, whereby forces are correctly used, and certain destructive agencies are controlled and prevented from going the destructive way.
The science of inoculation is purely physical in origin, and concerns only the animal body. This latter science will shortly be superseded by a higher technique, but the time is not yet. (17 - 322/4).


text:
This morning, at 8 AM I received a message In my Gmail inbox. About 5 PM I started writing a reply to the message on my smartphone. I wrote about six sentences and when I was about to finish the e-mail and checked back to the original message. And it had disappeared.
The only thing left from it is the part saying: reply to the message from ... sent ... .
The draft of the reply is still in my inbox and marked important. So I thought there should be enough reference for recovery and contacted Google about it and I have already received a reply: there's nothing they can do about it.
So please, be aware Google does not guarantee 100% reliability in their e-mail service. You may get a very very important e-mail and if you have no other copy it may be completely gone - forever. If you need that get another provider. Back up your email you receive there regularly.
And let me quote:
"Because there's unfortunately no more we can do to try to recover these messages, we won't be able to respond to future inquiries."
Maybe they removed the beta label to early...
PS: with two step authentication I think it's not very likely someone would break into my account to delete a private message of a student...

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Officials urge commercial and recreational fishermen to follow all public safety advisories.
May 8, 2011 - In anticipation of the opening of the Bonnet Carre and Morganza spillways, Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries (LDWF) officials reaffirm that commercial fisheries with active seasons will remain open. Officials also remind commercial and recreational fishermen, and boaters to follow all safety guidance from the US Coast Guard, LDWF enforcement officers and the Louisiana State Police.
Currently, there is a special shrimp season open in Vermilion Bay and details may be found here. Officials have also authorized the start of the spring shrimp season in stages across the Louisiana coast. Details on the season, which shall open in some areas on May 13, 2011, may be found here. The oyster season on public seed grounds remains closed.
High water levels in the Mississippi River have warranted boating advisories from officials throughout Louisiana. LDWF enforcement agents are patrolling high water areas to ensure traffic and wakes do not impact houses or camps where ever possible.
The Department of Wildlife and Fisheries is charged with managing and protecting Louisiana's abundant natural resources. For more information, visit us at www.wlf.louisiana.gov on Facebook atwww.facebook.com/ldwffb or follow us on Twitter @LDWF.
For more information contact Olivia Watkins at email@example.com or at (225) 610-8660.


text:
Marty Johnson was a perfectly happy and supremely average American guy: two kids, minivan, cozy house in the shadow of the Mall of America. Then a letter arrived telling him he was part of a Nigerian dynasty
We're really flying now, seventy miles an hour over rotting roads, past plantain trees and black-market petrol vendors and girls selling toasted cashews neatly packed in soda bottles. We pass churches built by missionaries and billboards demanding our enjoyment of Guinness. Every so often, we encounter police checkpoints manned by sweaty officers gripping machine guns, but we pass them, too, because an armed guard is riding with us, and the police high-five him and wave us on.
There are five cars in our convoy, and squished in the raggedy Peugeot up front is Marty Johnson, a 40-year-old mortgage banker from Eagan, Minnesota. Just a few days ago, Marty was closing loan applications and hitting gentle grounders to his daughter's fourth- and fifth-grade softball team. He was watching his Timberwolves take on the Sacramento Kings. But here he is now, dressed in his light blue shorts and T.G.I. FRIDAY'S CHILI COOK-OFF '91 T-shirt, deep inside a country he recently had trouble finding on a map, on his way to a place he never dreamed he'd visit, for a reason he still can't quite comprehend.
When we reach a red dirt road with a fading sign that reads ABOH, our convoy lunges left. The drivers begin honking their horns, and soon dozens of people poke their heads out of their concrete homes—elderly men and women, teenagers, children in bare feet. As the horns blare on, the younger villagers begin chasing after us, wide-eyed, laughing.
He has come!
We're really flying now, seventy miles an hour over rotting roads, past plantain trees and black-market petrol vendors and girls selling toasted cashews neatly packed in soda bottles. We pass churches built by missionaries and billboards demanding our enjoyment of Guinness. Every so often, we encounter police checkpoints manned by sweaty officers gripping machine guns, but we pass them, too, because an armed guard is riding with us, and the police high-five him and wave us on.
There are five cars in our convoy, and squished in the raggedy Peugeot up front is Marty Johnson, a 40-year-old mortgage banker from Eagan, Minnesota. Just a few days ago, Marty was closing loan applications and hitting gentle grounders to his daughter's fourth- and fifth-grade softball team. He was watching his Timberwolves take on the Sacramento Kings. But here he is now, dressed in his light blue shorts and T.G.I. FFRIDAY'S CHILI COOK-OFF '91 T-shirt, deep inside a country he recently had trouble finding on a map, on his way to a place he never dreamed he'd visit, for a reason he still can't quite comprehend.
When we reach a red dirt road with a fading sign that reads ABOH, our convoy lunges left. The drivers begin honking their horns, and soon dozens of people poke their heads out of their concrete homes—elderly men and women, teenagers, children in bare feet. As the horns blare on, the younger villagers begin chasing after us, wide-eyed, laughing.
He has come!
He might not have found out if it weren't for Laura.
Marty Johnson would always have wondered, but without his wife, he may never have gone looking for his past.
On their first date, he told Laura he'd been adopted. It wasn't a secret. Marty remembered being adopted. He was 4 years old when he was taken in by George and Juanita Johnson of Omaha. They'd given him everything a kid could want in a family.
When Laura asked Marty if he knew anything about his biological family, he said he didn't.
"Don't you want to know where you're from?" she asked.
Sure, he was curious. He wondered if he had any biological brothers or sisters. Or why he was so big—by the time he was in eighth grade, Marty towered over George and Juanita. Now he was six four and 275 pounds. He didn't know why his sleepy eyelids looked the way they did, why his forehead was high and his skin was light brown. He suspected one of his parents might have been white. But it was just a guess.
"Maybe I'm Cuban," he said.
But he told Laura it didn't really matter to him. He already had a family. Juanita once even offered to help him find his biological parents, but he didn't take her up on it. George and Juanita were his parents. Looking around felt disloyal. Be happy with what you have, Marty would say to himself.
Seven months after that first date, Marty and Laura got married and decided to take a honeymoon in Mexico. That's when a funny thing happened. To go to Mexico, Marty needed his birth certificate, a document he'd never seen. When he asked Juanita to mail it to him, Marty discovered something he hadn't known: He'd been born in St. Paul, about ten miles from where he and Laura lived.
Marty had no idea how he'd wound up in Nebraska after being born in Minnesota. He wondered if he'd ever crossed paths with relatives—maybe even his parents—and not known it.
Still, he put the thought away. He and Laura were happy. They had two children: a daughter, Alyssa, and a son, GT. They bought a small house near the Mall of America. Marty got a job as a mortgage banker—Marty Mortgage, they called him, the soft-spoken guy with the thick forearms and the goatee.
In the end, it was his kids who convinced him. People would say to him, "They're so tall, like their dad," and they'd ask Marty if his parents were tall, too. He didn't know. It was one thing for him to grow up not knowing his story. But his children deserved to know theirs.
So Marty began searching. He wasn't especially rigorous. He signed on to a few registries for adopted children, places where he left information, just in case someone tried to find him.
Then, one day, in February 2001, a letter arrived from an adoption manager at Catholic Charities in Dubuque, Iowa—from the agency where George and Juanita had adopted Marty almost four decades ago.
"I am writing to inform you that the adoption office has received an inquiry from your birth mother," the letter read. "I am asking you to consider whether you would be interested in some form of contact with your birth mother."
It was a coincidence. Marty Johnson would not have to go looking for his past. His past had come looking for him.
The e-mail arrived a couple of weeks later.
Dear Marty,
I would like to talk to you.... I have waited a long time and I'm scared.... I don't know what to say, and I can talk to anyone, but this is more important than any kind of call I ever needed or wanted to make.
It came from a woman named Kathleen O'Connor Wang, who lived in Long Beach, California.
Marty wrote back immediately, giving her his work number, his home number, his cell, and his pager. Don't be scared, he wrote. I have a lot of questions, but don't worry. I'm just happy you found me. Maybe we can meet on Oprah or something.
An hour later, Marty's phone rang.
She was soft voiced and pleasant, a little nervous. They tried small talk. Marty told her about Alyssa and GT; she told him about her two daughters and four grandchildren. She worked for the Census Bureau and volunteered as a peace activist.
She was 57 years old. She said she'd started looking for him after she'd learned her daughter was pregnant with a son. It had made her finally take the step she'd dreamed of taking for so long. For the past thirty-seven years, she told Marty, she'd thought of him every single day.
Then she told him about his father.
His name was John Ogike. He'd been a visiting graduate student at Iowa State Teachers College in Cedar Falls, now the University of Northern Iowa. He was from Nigeria, in western Africa.
They'd met at a gathering in 1963, when Kathleen was home visiting her parents. Back at college, in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Kathleen had befriended a number of foreign students, including a Nigerian, and she'd learned how to speak a few fragments of Igbo, the principal language in the southeastern part of the country. That night at the party, she walked up to John Ogike and spoke a little Igbo. John laughed. This tiny brown-haired girl could speak Igbo? He was impressed.
She was drawn to him, too. He was in his late twenties, handsome and intelligent. Kathleen was struck by the way he talked about racial inequities in America. He seemed more sophisticated than the other students Kathleen knew.
Soon Kathleen started to visit him whenever she came home. They'd go for walks in town; they'd hold hands. In those days, people would look askew at a white woman hanging around with a black man, but Kathleen didn't care who saw them.
Then Kathleen got pregnant. When she told him, John was willing to marry her. But Kathleen wasn't ready to get married. She told her parents about the pregnancy, and they sent her to a Catholic home for unwed mothers in St. Paul, where girls could stay throughout their pregnancies and anonymously give their babies up for adoption. They gave her a pseudonym to match her initials: Kirsten Otto.
John appealed to Kathy's mother, but she told him it would be best if he cut off all contact with her daughter.
So, upon completion of his degree, John Ogike went back to Nigeria. Two months later, on April 4, 1964, Kirsten Otto, a.k.a. Kathleen O'Connor, gave birth to John Martin O'Connor. The Martin was for Martin de Porres, a Spanish-African saint Kathleen had read about who served the poor in Peru. Marty was baptized in St. Paul—in a church he would drive past a thousand times in his adult life—and when he was just a few days old, Kathleen was allowed to briefly touch him before saying good-bye. And she never saw her son, or his father, again.
Marty was silent on the other end of the phone.
He'd rehearsed this moment so many times in his head that he knew it by heart. He was going to say he understood, that he passed no judgment, that he was happy just to find his mother and have her in his life. But now he was consumed by only one thought: How do I find my father?
Kathleen had no idea if John Ogike was still alive. He would be almost 70 now, old for his part of the world. Shortly after he'd returned home, Nigeria collapsed into a brutal civil conflict, the Biafran War, which tore apart the country. It was possible that John Ogike was long dead.
In the days that followed, Marty sent inquiries about his father to Nigerian Web sites. But all he got back were those fraud e-mails—"I have $10 million in an account and only need a $10,000 deposit from you"—that Nigerians are notorious for.
Then, one day, Marty left a note on a University of Northern Iowa Internet message board, asking if anyone remembered a visiting student named John Ogike. He'd almost forgotten he'd posted it, because nine months went by before an e-mail arrived from an Iowa Teachers College graduate named Wanda Nielsen, who was passing time one day and decided to scroll down the message board, past all the newer e-mails, whereupon she came across Marty's message. She paused when she saw it. Wanda Nielsen recalled a handful of Nigerian students who were at the college in the early '60s, including a young man named Boniface Ogike, whom she'd corresponded with from time to time over the years. She remembered that Boniface had a brother named John.
Wanda Nielsen told Marty all of this in her e-mail. And the best part was that she still had Boniface Ogike's address.
Marty sent a letter to the address, though he was doubtful he'd ever hear back. But two months later, he received a handwritten letter in reply from Boniface Ogike, who wished Marty blessings and explained that yes, Marty's father, John Ogike, was alive and well in Nigeria. There was something else in the letter, too: Welcome to the Ogike dynasty!
Not long after that, another letter appeared, this one from Theresa, John Ogike's eldest sister—Marty's aunt. "You come from a noble and prestigious family," she wrote.
Noble and prestigious family? Ogike dynasty? Marty assumed the lines were African figures of speech lost in translation.
Marty also learned there were a lot of Ogikes living in the United States. More than twenty lived in Southern California, and others lived in New York. (He would later discover he even had Nigerian relatives in Minneapolis.) As soon as word of Marty's existence bolted back from Nigeria, the Stateside relatives lavished him with information about his father. John Ogike was the son of Francis Ogike, an educator who'd founded a school. Like his father, John Ogike became an esteemed teacher and later went on to work at universities; many of his siblings had studied in America. He was now retired, they told Marty. He had married a woman named Juliana and had six children. Chibuzo, Gerald, Amara, Oby, Agboma, and Nnadozie—these were Marty Johnson's siblings.
Marty also found out that his father was the chief of a village called Aboh. In fact, in Aboh, Chief John Francis Ogike wasn't even known as that—he was called Udeh-ekeh, an Igbo word that means "the renown of the Creator." In his tiny corner of the world, Marty's father was the boss.
What this meant didn't truly hit Marty until he traveled to see his sister Oby who was visiting Ogike relatives in California. Oby was gorgeous and tall and spoke English with a pretty accent. When she saw Marty for the first time, she took one look at him and said, "There is no doubt. You look just like Udeh-ekeh."
Later that day, Oby gave him the news: "You understand that where we're from, because of our father's position, you are considered a prince."
The word hung there in the air like a smoke ring. "Wait," Marty said. "Say that again?"
"You are a prince."
In March 2003, the Minneapolis Star Tribune ran a story with the headline EAGAN MAN'S A PRINCE—REALLY. Marty's friends began bowing whenever he entered a room. "No, no, stop," he'd say. "It's not like that." There was no crown or palace of gold awaiting him in Africa; it was only a traditional title, an honorific.
But people who knew Marty began to notice small changes. He became a junkie for news about Africa, cruising CNN and the international section of the newspaper. He started wearing African caftans—presents from his new relatives. This was a man who'd never met a sweatshirt he didn't like, and now he was wearing a caftan to "diversity day" at Alyssa and GT's elementary school. He wore one to his high school reunion in Omaha.
He wanted badly to go to Nigeria, but the trip was expensive, and the Marty Mortgage business wasn't exactly going wild. He'd told people he was trying to go in December for the holidays, and when December came and went, he felt frustrated. What if something happened to his father before he had a chance to meet him?
That's when word started getting around among Marty and Laura's friends: Let's pass the hat and buy Marty a ticket. Laura started collecting donations from people she didn't know, people who had heard Marty's story and wanted to contribute. She never told Marty she was doing any of this.
It was around then that I spoke to Laura for the first time. She'd known I'd talked to her husband a few months back and told him that if he ever went to Africa to find his father, I'd love to go with him. Now she was calling to tell me that she was going to surprise Marty with a plane ticket to Nigeria, and if I wanted to go I should make plans to accompany him.
On his fortieth birthday, Marty walked into a function room at Mount Calvary Lutheran and encountered a surprise party full of friends applauding him. Kathleen was there; so was Juanita. Laura stood on a small stage with Alyssa and GT and presented Marty with a round-trip ticket to Lagos, Nigeria. His new family was expecting him, she said.
On the first morning, Marty awakes to a voice.
"Who are you?"
The voice is high—a child's.
"How did you get here?"
Another voice. Also a child's.
"Are you my uncle?"
Marty rustles in his sheets and looks over to see his two nephews, O'Neal and Bryan, ages 7 and 8, perched across from him.
"Where are you from?" O'Neal asks.
"Where is that?"
"In the United States."
"Did you come on an airplane?"
Bryan looks at Marty. "Do they take the lights where you come from?"
Take the lights? Later Marty learns that he was talking about the power outages that are a daily event in Nigeria.
We arrived last night, emerging groggy from our flight into an arrivals gate teeming with pushy luggage porters, baton-twirling police officers, and money changers flashing thick rolls of naira. As we exited, a pair of taxi drivers began screaming at each other, squaring off like bors, fists raised. Bystanders roared, egging them on. Adolf, Oby's husband, slapped Marty on the back and howled with laughter.
"Welcome to Nigeria!" he cried.
Our plan is to spend a couple of days here in Lagos before heading off to the southeastern part of the country, to Marty's father's village. But first, this afternoon, Marty's sister Amara is hosting a celebration for him at her home, complete with a five-piece drum-and-brass band that breaks out in a rowdy welcome song when we arrive.
Marty is beset. He meets so many friends and relatives that he cannot possibly keep track of all the names. They teach him some Igbo. Kedu? How are you? Odi mma. Everything's fine. Gini neme? What's happening?
They all speak English, too, though Marty still doesn't always understand what they are saying. So he just smiles, or he pops a bottle cap off a beer with another beer—an old bartender's trick that they try to imitate. He eats, too—chicken, goat's meat, and fufu, a floury mush eaten by hand. His relatives watch him take every bite. They love that he's big and hungry; they see Marty's appetite, and it's as good as a blood test.
Later on, as the party moves out to the driveway, Marty boogies down. He bobs his head and raises his arms and quakes his body down to his leather sandals and white socks. Sweat soaks his shirt. A throng of women surround him, forming a conga line and throwing their arms in the air. When the driveway gate opens, street kids look inside. Who is this man? He almost looks like an oyibo—a white man.
Marty dances over to me and yells in my ear. "I just realized something," he says. "We're in Africa!"
When he was very young, Marty Johnson witnessed a car accident. Over time he began to wonder if his parents had been killed in the wreck. He had nothing to base it on, but he kept the thought in his mind for years, as if it were comforting to think they were taken from him, instead of having given him away.
He told me this when he was still in Minnesota, getting ready for the trip, and I can't stop thinking about it as we drive to his father's village. Marty's in the car up ahead, and I'm traveling in back in a minivan with the machine-gun-toting guard and Marty's brother Nnadozie. Nnadozie is big and thick limbed and is wearing a white Charles Woodson Oakland Raiders jersey.
"This is finally it," Nnadozie tells me. "I have been hearing Martin, Martin, Martin. When I saw him, it was like heaven to me."
Several miles later, we turn into the village, and the chase begins. Little kids spill out of their concrete homes, children dressed in maroon-and-white uniforms come running from the school that Marty's grandfather founded.
_Obiala! _
Our convoy curls around a grassy field where boys boot a half-deflated volleyball, and then we stop. This is Udeh-ekeh's house, we are told: red roofed, painted yellow and green, with a spacious front porch.
Marty steps out of the Peugeot, and as he does, a pair of women grab him by the hands and lead him toward the steps. They don't speak to him, they simply tug this wide-bodied stranger toward their home. People in the crowd shriek as he approaches.
And suddenly there's Udeh-ekeh. He's at least half a foot shorter than Marty, but there's no mistaking this is him. He's dressed in a chestnut brown gown and a red cap, and he moves slowly across the front porch. He stops and looks up and down at the light-skinned man standing before him, almost as if he's inspecting him, and then embraces Marty so hard that the veins in his forearms bulge. Marty grips him back, steps away and looks: The man is smaller, yes; darker, yes. But look at that forehead. It is the same as the one he used to stare at in the mirror back home. It is an Ogike forehead. The sleepy eyelids? Same. Hands, feet? Same, same.
"Oby, Oby, look," Udeh-ekeh's wife, Juliana, says to her daughter. "He's a younger version of your daddy! He's cute!"
And Marty Johnson, who is not known as a crier, cries. And Udeh-ekeh, who is not known as a weeper, weeps. He weeps so much that Nnadozie, who hates to see his father upset, walks away and hides behind our minivan.
It is a hell of a party. Udeh-ekeh provides champagne, Cognac, and Star beer, Nigeria's own brew. He has coad his old cook, who'd been retired for years, to come back. He's even had his entire house repainted.
On the front porch, Udeh-ekeh washes Marty's feet, as was done in the Bible for a visitor who'd arrived from a long journey. Moments later, Udeh-ekeh steps into his home and returns with his old Remington shotgun, which he blasts into the air in celebration. He goes back into the house and reemerges with a bottle of champagne, but instead of pouring Marty a glass, he shakes it and sprays it all over him like Marty's just won the Indy 500. "Ha ha," he says. "That is an American tradition."
Inside the house, Udeh-ekeh asks us to sit for a kola-nut ceremony. It is a Nigerian tradition—to welcome and pay respect to a visitor. Udeh-ekeh offers a kola nut to Marty. He offers one to me. He offers one to President Bush, telling Marty he must take it to the White House. "Okay," Marty says sheepishly.
It's a ceremony that will be repeated many times before we leave. Marty will get good at these, learning when to pass the nuts and how to properly grasp the bowl in his hands. He'll even start to get used to the kola's bitter taste. Each time he takes a wedge in his mouth and chews on it, everyone looks to see if he will spit it out. When he does not, the crowd roars approvingly.
Marty meets his aunts and uncles—Theresa, Franka, Aloysius, Hilary, and Boniface, the uncle who'd received his first letter. He meets the rest of his siblings. Marty was concerned about meeting Chibuzo, Udeh-ekeh's eldest son with Juliana, worried that Chibuzo might feel displaced. But Chibuzo greets his new brother with a bear hug. Like all the other Ogike children, Chibuzo had been stunned by the news that Udeh-ekeh had another son, but he's come to accept it.
"I thanked God Udeh-ekeh wasn't polygamous!" Chibuzo jokes.
It's as if Aboh had been expecting Marty Johnson all along, and he's just been delayed for a long time. Family and strangers all tell him the same thing: You are home now. You are home.
"We thank God for you, Martin Ogike," Marty's great-uncle Fidelis says to him. "God has guided you to this place."
The celebration lasts for days. Hardly an hour passes in which a visitor doesn't come to the house to see if it is true, that there is an American man here who looks like Udeh-ekeh. The oldest woman in Aboh—no one here is exactly sure of her age—hobbles over on her cane, hunched at a right angle, and stares at him.
"I didn't realize how many people were waiting to see me," Marty tells me one afternoon as we're eating a lunch of plantains and beef. He seems unsure how to handle the attention. Back in Minnesota, he waited in line at Home Depot like everyone else, but in the village, life moves in accordance to his needs. When Marty naps, everyone in the house naps. His family won't eat until he wants to eat. Nnadozie and Agboma, still the babies of the family, won't sit down at the dinner table unless Marty asks them to. When Marty figures this out, he's almost embarrassed. "Sit down, eat!" he says, watching Nnadozie eyeball dinner.
Meanwhile, Udeh-ekeh shows him off every chance he gets. He takes Marty to meet the region's Catholic bishop and the chairman of the local town government. The chairman pops champagne. Later, Nnadozie tells me there are rumors throughout the village that our trip is protected by the United States government, and that if even a mosquito were to bite us, planes would bomb the village.
At night, back in Udeh-ekeh's home, Marty's new siblings study him like an alien. "Put yourself in Marty's shoes," Oby says to me. "Forty years! You don't know if you're Mexican, Brazilian, Australian." The Ogike kids are surprised by Marty's mellow demeanor; they can't believe he will sometimes go for twenty minutes without saying anything. "He is on the quiet side," Agboma tells me. "I would like to know more about him. There are certain things I would like to ask him—deeper questions. I would like to confide in him." Nnadozie, however, thinks Marty's calmness resembles Udeh-ekeh's. "My dad, before he talks on an issue, he thinks," he says. "Martin has the same quality."
In the mornings, Marty walks the village's red dirt roads, where every detail entrances him. This is my uncle's house. This is my grandfather's school. This is the field where my brothers and sisters played. "It's like I grew up here," he says.
He is in Africa, and he is starting to see himself differently. Marty never talked about his race much, but his color was always there, especially in Nebraska and Minnesota, where he often was one of the few black people in school or at work. He says it never bothered him terribly, but here, when he sees the black policemen and farmers and politicians and pilots, he is surprised by how much this moves him.
"All my life," he tells me, "most of my friends I grew up with, hung out with, were white. It's unique being around so many black people and never thinking twice about what people think about me."
Within a few days, Marty replaces his T-shirts with a caftan. He strolls the village with his brother, addressing his relatives by name, even dropping a little Igbo, too.
Then there's the chair. At first Marty doesn't realize that the chairs on Udeh-ekeh's front porch seem to have a pecking order; Udeh-ekeh usually sits in the one closest to the door. But lately, the father has been ceding it to his son. Now, when Marty wakes up, he plops himself in the honored chair without hesitation.
"I feel a big responsibility to be out here for people to see me," he says one afternoon as we sit on the front porch drinking sodas out of thick glass bottles. "So many people have come by to greet me."
A couple of nights later, we're inside Udeh-ekeh's house, resting after dinner, when Agboma asks Marty a question. "Do you like the governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger?"
"Yes, I like the governor of California," Marty says.
"You like him?" She pauses. "Do you get The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air?"
Yes," Marty says. "Will Smith."
"Martin Lawrence?" Agboma says.
"Oh, I saw him in House Party, part two. I like his films."
Outside they can hear Udeh-ekeh's cook washing pans. Marty and Agboma watch a pack of insects bounce off a lightbulb.
"Martin," Agboma asks, "in America, do the bugs go to the light?"
From the time we'd arrived in the village, Udeh-ekeh kept talking about what we'd do that coming Saturday. Wait until Saturday, he kept saying, but he never explained why. "You'll see," he said. "Saturday you'll understand."
When Saturday morning comes, Udeh-ekeh leads Marty out of the house. He holds Marty's arm as they walk. "We are going to your grandmother's village," he says. "You can see where those big bones come from."
They still haven't talked much one-on-one, but Marty has become aware of facial expressions in his father that remind him of his own—Udeh-ekeh's sly grin, the way he playfully arches an eyebrow when he hears something he disagrees with.
For Udeh-ekeh, Marty's arrival has conjured up many memories. He recalls Iowa, its vast ribbons of corn and wheat; road trips to Chicago and the coast of Maine. He remembers the cold, too: Iowa was where John Ogike saw snow for the first time. His classmates teased him about that when he first arrived. "You haven't seen white America yet!" they said.
When Udeh-ekeh left, he left in a hurry. He did what Kathleen's mother had asked him to do. He returned home and served as principal of his father's school, the same one still up the road. But by 1967, the region fell into war, the entire eastern part of the country seceding as an independent state, Biafra. Nigerians turned against Nigerians. The village became a refugee camp. Soldiers marched in the field outside Udeh-ekeh's school.
When the war ended, Udeh-ekeh moved on to working at universities, and he stayed in education until his retirement, in 1993. He became chief of the village that year, when his father died. But Aboh wasn't as busy as it used to be. Nigerian children wanted to live in more exciting places, like Lagos or, if they were lucky, the United States.
Lately, though, the village has been buzzing like the old days. Marty has enlivened the place.
"You will be back soon, of course," Udeh-ekeh says.
"I hope so," Marty says.
"This is just the beginning," Udeh-ekeh says.
We leave Aboh and enter the adjoining village, where Marty's grandmother was from. We round a corner and find thirty villagers, relatives on Udeh-ekeh's mother's side, gathered under a thatched-roof patio. Udeh-ekeh was right—these are where Marty's big bones come from. The men gathered here are built like linebackers, tall and thick limbed like Marty.
"This is your naming ceremony," Udeh-ekeh tells Marty. According to tradition, he will now give his son his African name.
The kola nut is passed. We drink sweet palm wine tapped from a local tree. The men talk mostly in Igbo to one another, but then one of Marty's cousins stands up to recognize him. "You are home! You are in your home! We are sharing everything with you," he says to Marty. "We have enough empty land."
"What is he saying?" Marty asks Udeh-ekeh.
"If you want to build a house or a factory, you have land free here," Udeh-ekeh says. "Anything you want to do, you are entitled."
One by one, his relatives step forward and pay their respects. Udeh-ekeh stands and explains the history of his mother and the village, how everyone in this village was big, like Martin, and how they all recognize this visitor before them as one of their own.
"I decided I would give you your name here," Udeh-ekeh says. "Martin Johnson Ogike...Chinenye."
The crowd erupts. "Chinenye!"
"God gives," Udeh-ekeh says, translating.
"God gives!"
"Your name," Udeh-ekeh says, "will never be forgotten in this family."
On the morning we're set to leave, Udeh-ekeh enters Marty's bedroom as he's getting packed and takes a seat on his bed. He looks tired and a little melancholy. Forty years has been compressed into barely a week.
"I am happy," Udeh-ekeh says. "I just want to think about the future. The past is a fact, but that's all it is right now: a fact."
"I'm here now," Marty says. "Everything is okay."
"It was a different situation long ago," Udeh-ekeh says. "Can I change it now? No. So I am not so concerned about it."
It is as close as Udeh-ekeh will come to talking about what happened in Iowa. But Marty isn't looking for an explanation. Like his father, he wants to think only of the future. He went into this trip with some apprehension. Now he is figuring out ways to come back regularly, talking about businesses he could launch here. He could be an importer-exporter, maybe, traveling between Nigeria and the United States; he's seen carvings in the markets that sell for $4 here and $75 back home. He could get a Bobcat and plow the roads, help fix the houses. And like any parent, Udeh-ekeh is dangling a carrot to lure his child back home: He says he will not officially give Marty his title until he returns to Aboh with Laura.
It feels possible. Marty could make the village part of his life.
"Laura always said she wanted to retire someplace warm," Marty says, laughing.
To the airport, Marty wears a new blue caftan and turns heads on the way to the ticket counter. Oby is there to send him off, as well as Amara, Amara's husband, Kenneth, and Nnadozie.
Marty keeps the good-byes simple. He doesn't want to make Oby cry too much. He doesn't want to think of them as good-byes. As Udeh-ekeh says, this is a beginning.
"Had I never found my family, I would have always wondered," Marty tells me. "But now that I have, I am thinking, God, I should have been looking for them twenty years ago."
He laughs as he says this, because he has no regrets. Not after this journey. Marty may have been wrong all those years when he thought it didn't matter where he came from, but what a way to be proven wrong.
At the security X-ray, a guard looks Marty up and down.
"You look like a prince," the guard says.
"My father is a chief," Marty says.
"But you're from America?" the guard asks.
Chinenye Ogike, the prince of Aboh village, picks up his luggage.
"I know," Marty Johnson says. "It's a long story."
Jason Gay is a GQ articles editor.


text: If you only use your Garmin while you train and race, you're missing out on half the features. Garmin Connect will display a map, temperature, lap splits, a variety of graphs and your notes for every activity, depending on your device, accessories and location. It's everything you need to see what you've done and how you're doing.


text:
Holiday show at Ridgefield Playhouse
Tony Award-winner Debbie Gravitte ("Jerome Robbins' Broadway") and a cast of friends and local residents will set the tone for the holidays with seasonal music on Friday, Dec. 14, with "Debbie Gravitte's All-Star Holiday Show."
Joining Gravitte at the Ridgefield Playhouse will be international opera star Bill Joyner; Sal Viviano from the off-Broadway hit "Closer Than Ever"; members of the Ridgefield Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Russ Kassoff; Carrie Pin and the Macdonald-Pin Dancers; A Cappella 8; and the Holiday Spectacular All-Star Kids Chorus.
The program will include "Santa Claus is Coming to Town," "The Twelve Days of Christmas" (with audience participation), "I'll Be Home for Christmas," "Memory" and "Music of the Night."
The Ridgefield Playhouse, 80 E. Ridge, Ridgefield. Friday, Dec. 14, 8 p.m., $45. 203-438-5795, ridgefieldplayhouse.org.


text:
Max und Mary needed a new logo design and created a contest on 99designs.
A winner was selected from 99 designs submitted by 34 freelance designers.
Our start-up company 'Stickwunsch' (english: 'Embroiding Wish') will offer individualized embroiding of textiles for private (e.g. towels, blankets, clothes, pillows) and business usage (restaurants, catering, sport clubs). We will target customers both online and in local markets with a shop in shop concept. Our products are of very high quality standards and are mostly bought as personalized gifts for family and friends. Most private customers are females of all ages.
Private and business customers.
We are looking for both a company logo and a text design for the company name. It must be possible to use the company name (Stickwunsch) both independently or combined with the logo. The logo shall not contain the company's name. To attract business customers the logo has to be reputable and reflect our professional attitude.
The attached file just shows a few ideas we came up with during a brainstorming session and is meant to provide a rough guideline. Please feel free to invent other logos and designs.
We are counting on your creativity!
Find out how a design contest works or learn more about our logo design services.


text:
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YBF LtdNo feedback
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We specialise in timber frame and traditional construction methods,building anything from an extension to a new house,samples of work can be seen,i have 35 years experience in the trade.I give a reliable service and can supply and quote for all trades. read more
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CSN building contractors11 Feedback reviews, 100% positive
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A couple of things that jumped out of Google reader at me:
Obama wants health care reform by the end of this year. His tone was inclusive but not weak. He clearly is drawing a line in the sand that he won't allow obstructionists to hijack the debate:
I want to be very clear at the outset that while everyone has a right to take part in this discussion, no one has the right to take it over. The status quo is the one option that is not on the table. And those who seek to block any reform at any cost will not prevail this time around.But there was a pragmatic streak:
Each of us must accept that none of us will get everything that we want, and that no proposal for reform will be perfect.On the public plan option, Grassley questioned whether the government would be an unfair competitor, but Obama defended its inclusion (color me relieved). McConnell suggested that this was one element of the plan that the GOP simply would not compromise on. I've got to say that this is pretty transparently disingenuous. As David Sirota asks, "If the free market is so marvelously awesome, shouldn't it have no problem winning a health-care competition with a government-run program?" I mean, isn't it conservative mantra that private concerns will always be more efficient and more effective than government bureaucrats? Perhaps they're just worried that if the public program proves cheaper and easier than the private insurers, it would disprove a core tenet of conservative philosophy. Frankly, it's a toss-up which will win. The public plan will have no execs to pay, shareholders to pay, and minimal advertising costs. It will have some economies of scale. But the big insurers have the same economies of scale, and will aggressively try to select out the healthier customers. Will the public plan be bogged down by adverse selection, or will it prove cheaper in the end? I'll be interested to see -- and the market will decide!
Interestingly, Rep Joe Barton (R-TX) made some rather conciliatory noises. A potential thaw in the House GOP? I'll believe it when I see it.


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As a woman who just graduated with a degree in agriculture, Sarah Peterson is a trendsetter.
The 2008 graduate of Kaneland High School grew up on a farm near Maple Park, participated in FFA in high school, studied agriculture in college and is now teaching agriculture at DeKalb High School.
"I pretty much always wanted to do something that involved agriculture and animals," said Peterson, who recently married beef and grain farmer Pete Peterson of Shabbona.
The American Farm Bureau reports that in a national study of 70 land-grant universities, undergraduate women outnumbered men in agriculture programs by more than 2,900 in 2011. As recently as 2004, men outnumbered women by more than 1,400 in the traditionally male-dominated programs.
Every state has at least one land-grant university, which were founded with federal funds to emphasize subjects related to the nation's agricultural and industrial development in their curricula. In Illinois, the role is filled by the University of Illinois.
"I think it is really neat that more females are getting involved," said Mariam Wassmann, director of information at the DeKalb County Farm Bureau. "Many of the females don't come from a farm, but they are pursuing an ag career."
Like DeKalb, FFA clubs at Sycamore, Genoa-Kingston and Indian Creek high schools have female advisers. Peterson studied animal science during her first year at the University of Illinois, but she switched her major to agriculture education her sophomore year.
"I missed FFA and sharing ag with the general public," Peterson said. "I think there are a lot more opportunities in ag now, so I think that's why more women are getting involved. My (FFA) president and vice-president are both female, and they would both like to pursue ag someday."
Kelsey Faivre, 16, is the DeKalb chapter's vice-president and plans to study agriculture communication and animal science. She hopes to work for an agricultural newspaper, as an agricultural literacy coordinator, or in public relations for a large agricultural company like Monsanto or DuPont. She noted that almost any field of study can have an agricultural focus.
"In the ag industry there has been a big increase in age-related fields like being an ag lawyer or an ag lender," Kelsey said.
As the agricultural economy grows more complex and automated, modern farmers are learning to work smarter, but not necessarily harder. Kara Poynter, agriculture teacher and FFA adviser at Sycamore High School, said focusing more on science than physical labor makes the field more appealing to girls. Her agriculture business class this year has three boys and 14 girls.
"I think it's because it is becoming more science-based with biotechnology and renewable energy," she said. "The way I advertise my class now is that it's science-based and it's for everyone."
Autumn Salis, 16, of Clare, agrees.
"Agriculture is definitely more appealing because of the science aspect," the Sycamore junior said. "Farming isn't about being strong anymore – it is more about brains."
Autumn operates Autumn's Happy Hens on her family's farm. Her egg business has 90 hens that produce four dozen eggs a day. She is considering studying poultry science in college, and also hopes to study agriculture education, "so I could get middle school and high school kids excited about doing ag."
The expanding field of agriculture has led to more entrepreneurial opportunities. Krystan Scheffler, a former student of Poynter's, is studying animal science at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville at Poynter's suggestion. Scheffler did not grow up on a farm.
"(Poynter) is the one who got me started on it," Scheffler said. "I took her intro to ag class my freshman year and then I joined FFA sophomore year."
By her senior year, Scheffler was president of the chapter. Once she finishes with school, she plans to return to Illinois as a businesswoman.
"I am trying to go for my master's in animal nutrition and then open my own animal nutrition company someday," she said.
The changing face of ag science
As a woman who just graduated with a degree in agriculture, Sarah Peterson is a trendsetter.


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Music Studies: Transfer
The study of music is the heart of a liberal arts education. The Fine and Performing Arts Department provides an ideal environment for such an education, with a diverse Music Studies curriculum that features creative courses in music theory, history, technology, and performance.
The UCC Fine and Performing Arts Department offers a comprehensive two-year Music Studies program for vocal and instrumental students. It is approved for transfer to the University of Oregon School of Music, Western Oregon University, and to liberal arts and education programs at most four-year colleges and universities. UCC also offers an associate of arts degree in music which is articulated with Southern Oregon University.
The coursework in Music Studies at UCC includes two (2) years of music theory and ear training, private lessons, and music literature. UCC award- winning performance groups include choir, band and orchestra, with groups specializing in both jazz and classical music. Additional classes are offered in jazz improvisation, music technology, jazz history, rock history, and world music.
Merit awards are awarded to outstanding music students each term. Call the music faculty at 541-440-4693 for more information.
The UCC Music program sponsors a number of performing groups, including Symphonic Choir, Band, Orchestra, Chamber Choir, and Concert Choir. All students are welcomed, and college credit can be earned. In addition, numerous music classes are offered, including individual lessons.
Video Clips
View performances from the Memorial Concert on October 23.
Student Ensembles:
- The Umpqua Singers (Vocal Jazz Ensemble)
- UCC Chamber Choir
Faculty Ensemble:
- Moment's Notice (Jazz Group)
Community Ensembles:
- Umpqua Chamber Orchestra
- Big Horn Jazz Band
- Vintage Singers
- Roseburg Concert Chorale
- Oregon Musical Theatre Festival
Music Studies at UCC provides a foundation for students wishing to pursue a professional career or simply improve their musical skills. Recent UCC graduates have found their vocation in music education, sacred music, music therapy, arts administration, music performance and production.
Transfer Guide
Students planning to transfer should work closely with UCC faculty and advisers, and with representatives from the receiving college or university. There may be special requirements for specific programs or schools.
The UCC Fine and Performing Arts Department designs its classes to accommodate music students and community musicians, and offers music classes in the following subject areas:
- Music Theory
- Music Literature
- Music Theory
- Music Literature
- Jazz History
- Rock and Roll History
- Music Technology
- Improvisation
- Individual voice or instrument instruction
Residents of WA, ID, NV, and CA
If you are from Washington, Idaho, Nevada, or California, you pay Oregon resident tuition rates. That's a big discount! You might also be interested in what life is like around UCC. Find out!
Money for College
Don't miss your chance to apply for a UCC Foundation Scholarship! The application period is open now through March 5. The UCC Scholars application is combined in the same application process. Need help? Check out scholarship nights. (Feb 13 & 26)
Why UCC?
At UCC, you can earn a TWO-YEAR TRANSFER DEGREE for less than you'll pay for one year at a state university. Plus, UCC offers:
• Seamless, direct transfer degrees
• Expert faculty dedicated to teaching
• Personal attention and small class sizes
• Online classes
Prospective students should visit Advising and Career Services to get started and then see a program advisor (below) to develop a more focused educational plan.
Jason Heald - Contact
Director, Associate Professor, Music
Phone: 541-440-4693


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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Author Jennifer Finney Boylan says there is more to being a mother than giving birth and in her newest book, "Stuck in the Middle with You," she chronicles her transgender journey from being a father to a mother.
For much of her life as a parent of two boys she said she was "some parental version of the schnoodle or the cockapoo," referring to the dogs produced by mixing two breeds.
In the book, Boylan, 55, describes the impact of her transition, which began about 11 years ago, on her now-teenage sons, Zach and Sean, and her wife of 25 years, Deirdre.
Boylan, who has written 12 other books, spoke with Reuters about her latest work, gender and parenting.
Q: What inspired you to write a memoir on parenting now?
A: "I wanted to talk about trans experience to kind of normalize it a little bit ... A trans person tends to get into the news when there's trouble, when there's been a murder or violence, someone has lost their job. And those are important stories to cover, obviously ... But somebody needs to tell the stories of mothers and fathers and children ... when the stories are about families doing well.
Q: How has your family reacted to being portrayed by name?
A: It was their idea ... I was a little afraid. That was the other reason I was a little reticent about writing about motherhood and fatherhood. It seems like writing about your children is another form of child abuse it seems to me, so I asked them about it.
But Zach said: 'No that's great. Everyone should know about our family.' He's very proud of his family. But he said: 'If you're going to write about us, use our real names.'
Q: There's been much debate about the work-life balance of women. You've seen parenting from both sides - what's your take?
A: So, can a transgender woman have it all? ... Fathers can't have it all either. Every couple has to figure out what dynamic is going to make that family work ... I think families have to figure out what are the two or three most important things and do those things consistently and just try to fill in the gaps wherever you can.
Q: What are your thoughts as more U.S. states march toward marriage equality, given your own journey from an opposite-sex couple to a same-sex one?
A: We have this sense of trans people as vulnerable others, when in fact there are tens of thousands of transgenders throughout the country going about their business, doing their jobs, raising their families. So when you tell stories, you give voice to that experience, too ... I'm just thrilled about the march toward equality for lesbians and gay men that is happening across the country, but it is also true that ... the giddiness around marriage equality can sometimes overshadow the fact that transgender people are really suffering in this country and are vulnerable to violence and suicide ... It's important for people to remember that for transgender people the fight for equality is a long way off.
Q: What is your hope for the future of the American family?
A: The most important thing in a family is the amount of love in that family. It matters more than the sex of the parents. It matters more than the race of the parents. It matters more than the economic privilege of that family. Love is what ties people together and what can drive people apart.
Q: Finally, any advice for aspiring writers?
A: As a writer, until I had children, I was always a late-night writer. I always wanted to stay awake until the dawn and do the work then. One thing about having children is that it just reset my clock ... The other thing is ... it used to be that I had to have my special pen and my special cup of coffee, and my special mug, and it had to be just the (right) inspiration. There's no room for that when you have kids.
I'll say two (more) things: First off, the most important thing is not inspiration, the most important thing is revision ... The other thing I would say is: You have to find your truth and it can be a terribly scary thing to do, to write from the heart ... and I'm hoping that ... as a woman that my writing reflects something that is truer and more fiercely fought for and hard won.
Reporting by Susan Heavey; Editing by Patricia Reaney and Vicki Allen


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All-Pro Off-RoadPosted in Ultimate Adventure: 2006 on April 21, 2006
While a number of companies will be working on our Ultimate FJ, the bulk of the heavy lifting will fall to All-Pro Off-Road. Jon and his crew will be designing and installing the suspension, axles and drivetrain. This promises to be quite a challenge as no FJ has ever been built to this level or expected to perform in conditions like those the UA can dish out. Jon will also tour UA with the rest of the group in one of his own Toyotas.
3PhotosView Slideshow
All-Pro Off-RoadHemet, CA 92543


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- New Mexico Life Insurance Quotes
- New Mexico Health Insurance Quotes
- New Mexico Car Insurance Quotes
- New Mexico Home Insurance Quotes
Are you looking for affordable insurance quotes in New Mexico? Look no further! On our website you can compare health, life, and car insurance quotes with just a few clicks. Obtaining low cost insurance rates has never been easier. We are an online insurance marketplace helping smart consumers like you shop for free, easy, and affordable insurance quotes.
Shopping for insurance can be stressful and overwhelming. Our website is designed to provide the ultimate online insurance shopping experience by bringing you the lowest, most affordable local insurance pricing. Not only are you able to compare rates online and save time and money, but our website also offers informative resources necessary to make a wise decisions on your insurance policy.


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Gwap Boyz 504 (Feat. Kiotti - The Current 106 & Park Freestyle Friday Champion) - Beat It Out Da Frame Remix [Strip Club Scene][User Submitted]
B reports "The Offcial Gwap Boyz straight out of New Orleans with the hot new single"Beat it out da frame" myspace.com/gwapboyz504"
Please click the "Report" button below if the video on this page is not working properly.
Comments will only be displayed by verified emails. No Spamming or Racism.


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SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea's point man on North Korea said Monday there is an "indication" that Pyongyang is preparing for a fourth nuclear test, a day after another Seoul official said a Pyongyang missile test may be in the works.
Unification Minister Ryoo Kihl-jae told a parliamentary committee Monday that "there is such an indication" of nuclear test preparations at Pyongyang's site in the country's northeast.
South Korean defense officials have said the North completed preparations for a nuclear test at two underground tunnels. The North used one tunnel for its last nuclear test Feb. 12. The second remains unused.
Either a nuclear test or a missile test would escalate tensions that have been rising for weeks on the Korean Peninsula, and would likely invite a new round of U.N. Security Council sanctions over North Korea's nuclear and rocket activity. The U.S. and South Korea have been raising their defense posture, and foreign diplomats were considering a warning from Pyongyang that their safety in North Korea could not be guaranteed beginning Wednesday.
Ryoo made his comment about a nuclear test in answering a lawmaker's question about whether there had been increased personnel and vehicle activities at the North's nuclear test site.
After Ryoo spoke, a ministry official said Pyongyang has been ready to conduct a nuclear test any time it wants. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter.
North Korea has unleashed a flurry of war threats and provocations over U.N. sanctions for its last nuclear test, and over ongoing U.S.-South Korean military drills, which the allies say are routine but Pyongyang says is a preparation for a northward invasion.
North Korea's warning to diplomats prompted South Korean President Park Geun-hye's national security director to say that Pyongyang may be planning a missile launch or another provocation around Wednesday, according to presidential spokeswoman Kim Haing.
During a meeting with other South Korean officials, the official, Kim Jang-Soo, also said the notice to diplomats and other recent North Korean actions are an attempt to stoke security concerns and to force South Korea and the U.S. to offer a dialogue. Washington and Seoul want North Korea to resume the six-party nuclear talks — which also include China, Russia and Japan — that it abandoned in 2009.
The roughly two dozen countries with embassies in North Korea appeared to be staying put, for now at least.
Sweden, which looks after U.S. interests in North Korea because Washington and North Korea lack diplomatic relations, and Brazil have no plans to withdraw any diplomats from Pyongyang at this stage, according to their foreign ministries Sunday. Brazil said it is keeping a close eye on the situation but at this time see no reason to change the decision. There has been no advisory that staff at the Egyptian Embassy will leave or suspend their work.
The Pentagon has strengthened missile defenses and made other decisions to combat the potential threat, and postponed a missile test, scheduled for this week in California, to avoid raising tensions further. U.S. Gen. Martin Dempsey, the Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman, said Sunday that he doesn't believe North Korea will engage in military action soon, "but I can't take the chance that it won't."
Dempsey said the U.S. has been preparing for further provocations or action, "considering the risk that they may choose to do something" on one of two nationally important anniversaries — April 15, the birth of North Korean founder Kim Il Sung, and April 25, the creation of the North Korean army.
Tensions between Seoul and Pyongyang led South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff to announce Sunday that its chairman had put off a visit to Washington. The U.S. military said its top commander in South Korea had also canceled a trip to Washington.
The South Korean defense minister said Thursday that North Korea had moved a missile with "considerable range" to its east coast, possibly to conduct a test launch. His description suggests that the missile could be the Musudan missile, capable of striking American bases in Guam with its estimated range of up to 4,000 kilometers (2,490 miles).
Amid North Korea's threats and warnings, it has blocked South Korean workers and cargo from entering its Kaesong industrial complex, where South Korean companies have employed thousands of North Korean workers for the past decade.
North Korea is not forcing South Korean managers to leave the factory complex, and about 500 of them remained at Kaesong on Monday. But the entry ban at the park, the last remaining inter-Korean rapprochement project, is posing a serious challenge to many of the more than 120 South Korean firms there because they are running out of raw materials and are short on replacement workers. More than a dozen of the companies have stopped their operations in Kaesong.
A high-level North Korean official visited the industrial zone on Monday, the official Korean Central News Agency reported. It said that Kim Yang Gon, secretary of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea, blamed South Korea for making it impossible to operate to zone as usual.
South Korea's finance minister, Hyun Oh-seok, said Monday that it is "quite ridiculous" for North Korea to be closing the border at Kaesong. "North Korea has nothing to gain from this kind of things," he said at a news briefing.
Hyun said the government is looking at ways to help Kaesong firms.
Chinese President Xi Jinping said Sunday — without specifically mentioning North Korea — that no one country should be allowed to upset world peace.
"The international community should advocate the vision of comprehensive security and cooperative security, so as to turn the global village into a big stage for common development rather than an arena where gladiators fight each other. And no one should be allowed to throw the region, or even the whole world, into chaos for selfish gains," Xi said Sunday at the Boao Forum for Asia, a China-sponsored talk shop for the global elite. He said China would work to reduce tensions over regional hotspots.
Seoul and Washington are taking the threats seriously, though they say they have seen no signs that Pyongyang is preparing for a large-scale attack.
Kim Jang-soo, the national security director, said the North would face "severalfold damages" for any hostilities. Since 2010, when attacks Seoul blames on North Korea killed 50 people, South Korea has vowed to aggressively respond to any future attack.
In recent weeks, the U.S. has followed provocations from North Korea with shows of force connected to the joint exercises with South Korea. It has sent nuclear capable B-2 and B-52 bombers and stealth F-22 fighters to participate in the drills.
In addition, the U.S. said last week that two of the Navy's missile-defense ships were moved closer to the Korean Peninsula, and a land-based missile-defense system is being deployed to the Pacific territory of Guam later this month. The Pentagon last month announced longer-term plans to strengthen its U.S.-based missile defenses.
North Korea successfully shot a satellite into space in December and conducted its third nuclear test in February. It has threatened to launch a nuclear attack on the United States, though many analysts say the North hasn't achieved the technology to manufacture a miniaturized nuclear warhead that could fit on a long-range missile capable of hitting the U.S.
AP writers Youkyung Lee in Seoul, Lolita C. Baldor in Washington, Robert Burns in Bagram, Afghanistan and Charles Hutzler in Boao, China, contributed to this report.


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Change Currency
Use this handmade bow on a rose gold paper clip to keep your place in your planner or hold papers together!
Bows measure approximately 3.5" across and 1.5" wide. Clip measures approximately 2" tall.
Please note that colors may vary from monitor to monitor.
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Join the weekly Classic Castle set review discussion. Please post your opinions on the set play ability, piece selection, design, etc. Which sets stand up to our catapult of critique and which ones crumble in shame!
This week's set is 6016 Knight's Arsenal.
Knight's Arsenal, released in 1987, is a weapons cart for the Lion Knights. It includes, one Lion soldier, two hatchets, two swords, and other accessories.


text: It definitely shows that you are a 1L.... Newsflash... Law school does not equal practice. If you think your exam hypos prepare you to practice, Bigfirm or not, you are insane.To win cases you have to learn how to use all resources (and supplements/treatises are the FIRST place you start). You don't go researching case law from scratch. You take a look based on your topical area as to what cases are most relevant in your jurisdiction.