"Maybe I am at the stage at which the man stares at the priest in amazement, asking, 'what did you just say?'" I told her that I realized that there is a whole world out there that needs to be uplifted, but I also told her that I simply didn't know how to begin. "That is why we go to peace marches and protest the stupid policies of governments that lead to war, so that we can blame someone for our own failure. That makes us feel good. I think the parable relates to that. I see the priest in the parable say to the peace-marchers, 'go home and don't come back until you can come with peace in your heart.' And he would be right in saying this, Erica. We go to peace marches, but privately we treat each other like enemies, except for some narrowly defined circumstances. I think we don't know what Love is, because we don't allow ourselves to experience it. We raise barriers upon barriers, obediently as we have been told to do, and for reasons we have long forgotten, or never understood in the first place. My point is that the way we treat each other makes no sense. Why can't we treat each other as human beings with respect, generosity, and loving?

      "So you agree that Love is the most important subject we can study?" Erica answered. "I believe, all the rest that we do gains its value from that."

      I agreed. "But now I must give you an exam question," I added. "If your previous rape incident happened today, how would you respond to it?"

      "No, Peter, you tell me," she replied. "If a similar thing happened to you, how would you react?"

      I said that would be like a blind leading the blind. I said that I would allow a date, but that would be to explore together of how to open those doors that are closed, and how to do it in a manner by which everyone becomes uplifted and enriched.

      "That would be quite an experience," said Erica.

      "I think this is a terribly hard thing to do," I said. "That may be the reason why we have not achieved anything along this line in five thousand years. I'm afraid that I would probably end up to be the learner in this case, which really isn't all that hypothetical," I suggested and laughed.

      "You would probably have the kind of conversation that we are having right now, Peter."

      "I should be so lucky," I replied, "but that's unlikely to happen."

      "How do you know that, Peter? We can't know that. You can never know what will happen in such a situation, unless you close the door on it as I had done, and say, no! That's what I did to myself. I closed the door to myself. But if it happened again, I think I would be wiser, this time. I really owe this to myself."

      "So, how would you respond today, Erica?" I interjected. "Take this as a scientific question. How would a pioneer respond, who is exploring and studying Love?"

      "You are asking a tough question," she said and began to smile. "You may be asking the impossible. If one is exploring Love, then one is exploring the future, and in exploring the future the conventional yardsticks no longer apply for points of reference. If one is exploring the future the only points of reference that apply are those rooted in aspects of Principle that scientific thinking brings to light. Here the marriage boundary no longer applies. Christ Jesus said this rather plainly. The sexual division of society, and its isolation from one another along this line, doesn't apply anymore either. But it doesn't stop there, does it? Even the age barrier can no longer be supported on the platform of Principle. People are just as deeply divided by age nowadays, than they are divided by sex. To answer your question as to how I would respond today to the man asking for a date, I would answer him with a yes, without hesitation. I would invite him to a place where we could talk and explore together the enigma of the age barrier with a focus on sex. What would come out of this exploration would likely widen his horizon five fold, in addition to putting the marriage boundary out of the way."

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