Chapter 20

RETURNING TO THE CITY:  SYMBOLIC HIGHWAYS AREN’T ALWAYS          WELL CONSTRUCTED

                                                                Written By:  Rashon Leyf

            Ralph said I had to write a “Returning To The City” chapter. And he said it should be a piece which at least to some extent expressed my thoughts and feelings concerning my recently completed road excursions. So, I decided to use that literary opportunity to compose one more disjointed discourse which, upon a first reading, might appear to have been written exclusively to my girlfriend Amber. But of course I didn’t write it to her alone. And as I begin to relate it now, I hope everyone who reads it will find it to be if not an enjoyable and perhaps entertaining piece, then at least a submission which acceptably fulfills its basic assignment.

            Amber, how can you and I lead the students of the highway from a focus of separation? First it was rumored you’d been taken to Paris. But now I don’t believe that assertion is true. And now it shall be my unwavering task to bring you back home from wherever you may have gone, if indeed you’ve gone anywhere at all.

            Yes, if you’re gone, I’ll try to get you back. You know I will. After all, I love you. But we have special responsibilities to humanity Amber. We were chosen to lead the students of the highway!

            Still, I can understand how you may have become disillusioned with all that’s happened over the last few years. We live in a city which has been chosen by otherworldly leaders to illustrate the differences and similarities between their and our known existences. But, what puts people such as you and I at a disadvantage in regard to those leaders, is that the power possessed by many of them supercedes that which has been granted to the overseers of our own zone of life.

            So, I can’t really blame you if you’ve left. Frankly though, I’d be surprised if you’d have been allowed to leave, given the role you fulfill in our city, and in our reality of the earth. But, no one can deny that our symbolic type lifestyle does become old from time to time. And as I recall it, what a shocking realization it was for me when I first learned that Earth has parallel realities! And since then, what a devastating perception has constantly been in my mind – I know now that other humans from other realities walk on the same planet as we, but across an existence divide from us! And I can tell you from personal experience that I found it much more difficult to believe in concurrent earthly realities with possible human life within them, than I did to accept that such life might indeed exist in outer space.

            But now I also know that people from other realities can come to mine. Yes, one day I was allowed to meet and become a part of the lives of certain individuals from different realities! And how that fact changed me! And Amber, today I live for only you and the obligations we share in regard to humanity as a whole.

            And I take the moments of the present very seriously. They’re all we have to live at any given time. And of course, at any given time anything which might alter our lives from thence forward might occur. And the example of that fact which I wish to note here happened on another day when I kissed you with a kiss that meant more than we knew. Yet, you turned away. And now my assumption is that I must relate my perceptions of that turn of events.

            Have you really gone to France? As I said, I don’t think so. But, maybe you actually have journeyed to that bastion of Europe from which long ago Normans once travelled to England and conquered those mortals known as English; and wherein, also long ago, many people were executed for apparently denigrating the lifestyles of their fellow countrymen, but likewise, one can only surmise, for also extending little or no compassion to the poorer classes who existed there at that time.

            But your picture remains on my bureau. And in my mind are memories of when we met long

ago. And of course we didn’t know then what fate the Spiritual Masters had envisioned for us. We became the leaders of one of four divisions of mankind!

            Yet, why has our adopted city been chosen to accommodate the leadership of the students of the highway? And why has it been designated to be the home of several underground, avant-garde, and new-era artists? I doubt anyone currently alive within any of earth’s realities can absolutely, and therefore truthfully answer those questions.

            Nevertheless, in my mind there’s no doubt but that Ralph Hawk is the leader of the artistic enclave which thrives in our home city today. And there’s also no doubt there but that this enclave is, at this current time, the most significant factor of reality in our city. Yes, in my opinion the petty squabbles which once apparently dominated our city’s way of life, as well as the everyday workings of our city’s largest employer, have today been replaced for significance by the artistic workings and lifestyle of those who’ve been called to resettle here, or as in the case of such people as Joseph Same, Orlon Braem, Jane Doer, and others, who’ve grown to adulthood here.

            And I can’t deny this recognition. It’s in my mind. And I believe I was a nobody until I met you Amber. Yes, that’s true, before I knew you all I had were potentials. But then suddenly society realized you and I were in love. And then society said you and I, as artists, should be dual chairmen of one of the classifications of humanity! And since then we’ve experienced many new realizations which for us have engendered many new acknowledgements. And this phenomenon has then granted us many new capabilities, and thus, many new possibilities as well.

            And now I’d like you to consider this example of what I’ve just said:  Today, as I look out a window, I can see more than only physical objects and living entities. I can visualize what’s represented by each individual piece of the puzzle of earthly existence. And, sometimes, as I gaze at tracts of our real world, I can comprehend that many of them are controlled by time itself. And this comprehension often then offers my sight a landscape sweeping eye which, when I’m able to control it via discipline, usually shows my mental capacity murals of great wealth, poverty, peace, war, feasting, starvation, peacemakers, warmongers, success, failure, mediocrity, attempts to establish order, order, newness, chaos, kings, peasants, nobles, factory workers, minorities, majorities, religions, blasphemies, hatreds – and loves. And, the word love is used often, but how is its meaning really known? And how is that meaning really captured in substance, or in spirit? And how often is love exemplified, and then shared throughout all the realities of earth?

            Amber, the word love describes my feelings about and toward you. Yet, as leaders of the students of the highway we’ve come to know many of our fellow humans as barren not only in body and soul, but in courage as well. And they often hold the truths of life in their hands, yet can’t either understand or use them, or both.

            But Amber, hopefully you’re mine now for our remaining years. And, during those years let’s never desire to add our own spin to all the various modes of life which have been known and exercised across the centuries. Instead, let’s aid in the peaceful transference of each just expired second into the books of history. And by aiding in that transference, let’s keep those of whom we are the shepherds of safe in all courts and bedrooms.

            And so many people ask me “How can you reach behind you and pull that greatest of all emotions out from the past?”

            And I answer, “Very easily! But, in truth whenever I must attempt to bring love back and recycle it yet again, I must then likewise be able to bypass unbelievers, questioners, and status reproducers. And I must not come into contact with any of them!”

            But who dares to open doors behind which no one is permitted to enter? And who knows whereof necessity emerges? I’m coming home now. I know that. But what will I find when I get there? I’d like to find you there Amber. I’d like us to be reunited. And it’s my hope that you and I will once again be able to judiciously use the guidelines of existence with which, in the past, we led that genre of humanity termed the students of the highway.

            And Amber, today I’m realizing that now more than ever I wish peacefulness would seize control of people’s minds. And peacefulness looks toward the sun’s morning light and says, “Before and after me are the rays you’ve solidified. Your beams can scan millennia. And they can separate time frames. And thus, they afford mortals the ability to more clearly understand eras of time. Yet, earthlings must be careful! At any time rays of light may decide to render time frames back to

Caesar, or even back farther still until they actually pass the past into the future.”

            And as far as discussing my thoughts about our recently completed road excursions and their aftermaths, I honestly can’t understand why it was necessary for us to undertake those journeys – and especially at such a time as this, when we don’t know what’s become of the loves of our lives. Nonetheless, I’m sure there was a reason for those exploits, but Ralph hasn’t disclosed that reason to John and I as of yet.

            Still, no matter why those excursions were necessitated at this time, I know that I (and I’m sure John as well) did my best to complete them successfully. And, yes, I did learn a lot of new things while on those journeys. And I saw a lot of very famous and interesting places. Nevertheless, as I return home now, the lack of knowledge I alluded to in the previous paragraph concerns me because when I sense I’ve been left in the dark so to speak, I then envision myself as a driver attempting to navigate a treacherous road in the midst of a vile winter. And, of course, I’ve found that winter sometimes comes to travelers on symbolic highways. And then, since those travelers are being propelled by symbols, they must twist their powers of perception to interpret what is currently referencing something other than itself in their lives. And sometimes if those travelers pause to rest on the side of the road, through their car windows they may then see paranoia disguised as winter.

            But tell me it’s summer. Lie to me if necessary! Convince me that all is well, and that a sun common to all earth’s realities shines today. And say it’s true that henceforth we’ll attack all evil.

            And now, let’s pretend that I’m not out on the road today. Let’s say I’m already home. And let’s announce that today, through my living room window, with the aid of binoculars, I can see far off into the distance.

            And let’s tell society that as I look off into that distance, I see some men working there. And they’re using large earth-moving equipment. And oh, they’re digging a huge h*** in the ground.  Wait now! I see someone holding a large sign there. He’s standing in front of the area that’s now being excavated. But what does his sign say? It says, “This may become the future site of the world’s second fuhrerbunker.”

            Oh, no! No! Let that never happen! But wait – now the man is turning the sign around. And there are some words on its backside as well. What do they say? They say, “That will be left for you to decide.”