"I'll start with this from Miscellaneous Writings: 'God gives you His spiritual ideas, and in turn, they give you daily supplies. Never ask for tomorrow: it is enough that divine Love is an ever-present help; and if you wait, never doubting, you will have all you need every moment. What a glorious inheritance is given to us through the understanding of omnipresent Love! More we cannot ask: more we do not want: more we cannot have. This sweet assurance is the "Peace, be still"to all human fears, to suffering of every sort. (Mis 307: 1-10)' We've all got angel thoughts constantly streaming in."

"It's hard for me to use that idea practically."

"I just try to see it's what's going on in every thought and action. I mean everything has a divine origin even if my perception of it is material."

"And then it would fluctuate between good and evil, right?"

"Yes — in belief."

"OK — you're employed, you see your creativity and support coming directly from God. Then for some reason you let a situation — maybe a boss or the competition — become a dualistic entity. That's when your employment becomes a roller coaster. You've eaten from the fruit of the tree of good and evil and there'll be trouble."

"How would you handle that?"

"Well, you can work it through, just as the Bible does, over eons of suffering and spiritual insights till you reach Revelation 21 or you can cut the process short by understanding Christian Science."

"What if I've lost my job?"

"First of all in Science you can't lose your job. You are God's employment. He employs Himself being you and all."

"What's the reason — the human reason — you lost your job?"

"It's the economy....."

"Stop there. OK, in other words there's this material something called the economy. Sometimes it's up, sometimes it's down."

"Right."

"There's the problem. Live in God's economy where only divine good is unfolding. No booms or busts. Just orderly unfoldment of heaven as earth."

"I must be about my Father's business."

"Describe being about our Father's business."

"Well. look, in reality I'm infinite, eternal, unique, perfect. Those are not just angel thoughts flowing to something called 'me'. That's who I am! If I try to live like a mortal, I'm right away in conflict with reality and the so called 'me' will suffer until it loses its hold and I'm letting reality assert itself fully."

"Now, that's full employment, trying to pull that off!"

"Exactly. Listen to this from Miscellaneous Writings: 'Be of good cheer; the warfare with one's self is grand; it gives one plenty of employment, and the divine Principle worketh with you, - and obedience crowns persistent effort with everlasting victory (Mis 118: 24-28 ' Be of....victory).' "

"That woman can be so funny."

"I like the idea of being a Christian Science practitioner first and letting my daily activities or employment flow from that perspective."

"What do you mean about being a practitioner? You're not listed."

"Anyone who understands Christian Science and puts it to use I say is a Christian Science practitioner."

"And you just use it in everything?"

"Well I try."

"Like sex?"

"Why not? Haven't we had enough of sex or anything else cut off fro Deity?"

"I've given it up."

"What?"

"Sex."

"I'm not sure Christian Science is so much about giving things up. I've let go of smoking — underwater bowling, stuff like that, but aren't we better off translating daily activities into their divine antecedents and living them out from there?"

"There's something in the Lesson on Soul and Body about that, where Paul says we're not being unclothed but clothed upon (II Cor 5: 1-8). Mrs. Eddy writes: 'The fading forms of matter, the mortal body and material earth, are the fleeting concepts of the human mind. They have their day before the permanent facts and their perfection in Spirit appear. The crude creations of mortal thought must finally give place to the glorious forms which we sometimes behold in the camera of divine Mind, when the mental picture is spiritual and eternal. Mortals must look beyond fading, finite forms, if they would gain the true sense of things. (S&H 263: 32-8)'""I don't have a 9 to 5 right now but I've still got to see myself as fully employed. It can't be just a fantasy or rushing about smartly, as Mrs. Eddy might say, but real work in Science."

"Like what?"

"Like doing the Lesson first thing. Treating news stories and my own stories. Seeing through what friends say. You know, seeing the facts shining through the fiction."

"So you're also being a practitioner."

"OK. But it has to be deeper than that. Being a Christian Science practitioner or teacher or business person or even a prostitute — these are roles, they're secondary. The main point to me is that everyone and everything is the idea of God."

"It sounds so static."

"God and His idea, man and the universe, are omni-action (S&H 587: 19-20)."

"I just got a bunch of Course in Miracles tapes. I listen 30 minutes a day and try to put what I'm learning into action."

"So give us some wisdom from the Course."

"Well, on relationships, is it what the Course calls a special relationship or is it a holy relationship? The difference being that a special relationship is based on human needs while a holy relationship flows from God."

"Could you use that distinction with people and things?"

"Sure. Is my employment holy or is it special? Is dinner tonight a holy occasion or is it merely shoving down proteins and carbs?"

"Since our lives are made up of activities and relationships I suppose we're not asked to drop all these and exist in a holy vacuum."

"The work is to convert what's already there — unless it's something horrendous — into a divinely based activity.""Oh, how was the trip?"

"It was great but speaking of work it did need lots of prayer. Travel today is a pain with all the crowds and security checks. And sadly Portugal which I've always loved really lags behind when it comes to accommodating modern travelers. I mean, multitudes jammed up at 6AM waiting for a passport check at the airport, credit cards looked upon with suspicion and unusable in many places, strange toll road signs leading to tough fines for confused tourists. That kind of stuff."

"And how did you handle the situations."

"I worked basically with the infinitude of good. This passage from Science and Health sums up what I was trying to see: 'Through the wholesome chastisements of Love, we are helped onward in the march towards righteousness, peace, and purity, which are the landmarks of Science. Beholding the infinite tasks of truth, we pause, — wait on God. Then we push onward, until boundless thought walks enraptured, and conception unconfined is winged to reach the divine glory. (S&H 323: 6-12)' "

"There had to be more to the trip than just travel difficulties."

"Yes indeed. Sorry for all the negativity! We were there filming a ceremony commemorating the resurrection and ascension of Jesus. It was a follow up to our trip to Brazil in January to film the Bonfim feast in Bahia where not only Christian imagery was prominent but African gods were syncretized with the Christian saints. Needless to say, the Portuguese original was singularly European and Christian. We'll go to Africa next year for the pure African side of things."

"It sounds like a good place to be during the economic crisis affecting Portugal and the other struggling countries in Europe."

"Yes — very suggestive of the oneness and allness of being."

"What about the Pope being there?"

"Well, he added to the imagery. There were huge masses in Lisbon and Fatima. The country is very Catholic even as it's about to get same sex marriage. And of course his holiness raged against it."

"He's a Nazi and an enabler of child molesters."

"But unindicted. I just loved him as best I could bearing in mind Mrs. Eddy's observation: 'Jesus beheld in Science the perfect man, who appeared to him where sinning mortal man appears to mortals. In this perfect man the Savior saw God's own likeness, and this correct view of man healed the sick. (S&H 476: 32-4)'"

"His human personality is so vile he promotes positive sentiment for Gay people."

"Let's not leave it there. Science gives no power to personality, pro or con. His perfection and the perfection of everyone, including Gay people, comes straight from God."

"OK. We need a topic for June."

"Well, I just had a healing of depression. Maybe we could do something in that area."

"How'd you do it?"

"I argued the case. Mind, God, can't be depressed and I , as Mind's reflection, can't be depressed either. I stuck with that and eventually felt joy!"

"I've been having trouble with memory and get evaluated every other week at the hospital."

"Well, should we take on Mind as our topic?"

"It's too general. How about sanity?"

"I don't like it. It's too dire. What about mental health?"

"It's fine with me. Mrs. Eddy says mental illness is the easiest problem to heal."

"If there are no objections I'll post Mental Health as our June topic."