There is an ultimate oneness of life, of nature and spirit. The destiny of all things unfold their divine essence and reveal God in their transient being. Babe, the pleasure you have brought about, the assistance you have offered, the love you have showed and the life you have lived—all these make you more amiable and respectable with every passing year in our hearts. You sound like you are doing well, despite not knowing what is happening at the front. The term is winding down and I hope that my students are leaving my classroom slightly better for it. Many still dismiss the war as a European problem, but a fair number see that it is bigger. Gone are the days when our countries are isolated. This is the twenty-first century. What affects one country affects us all. Now my students see that the World is worth fighting for. Education consists in leading a person, as a thinking, intelligent being, growing into self-consciousness, to a pure, unsullied, conscious and free representation of the inner law of divine unity, and in teaching one means thereto. Out of respect for the inner law of unity or for life as an unbroken whole in all its operations and phenomena, the educator should organize the instructional process in such a way that the order of the subjects to be taught supports the leaner’s inner development, while the whole program of studies should help the students to realize the reflection of the unity of life in the unity of knowledge. Kindergarten is also an inestimable blessing to humankind. #RandolphHarris 1 of 13

The development of nature reveals itself in the development of the individual mind and should be demonstrated in the teaching of science, the humanities, and religion. It is this committed and passionate relationship that set the personal context for life. We are social beings, made anxious by our separateness. Education should be structured to harmonize with the natural inner development of the pupil. It invites us to consume the same goods, work at the same jobs, adopt the same goals—defining ourselves through conformity and insignificant nuances of difference. However, if we lack the courage to be individuals, we will never achieve love, since love is a union under the condition of preserving one’s integrity. Education should unfold the whole person in each individual—giving of joy, intertest, understanding, humour, sadness, of all expressions and manifestations of that which is alive in us.  Religion should be taught in order to cultivate the emotions, nature should be studied because it is the self-revelation of God, and mathematics should be appreciated as the symbol of universal order. Language, too, connects people with the order and rhythm of things and should therefore take its part in education. Some people are particularly contempt for a glossy magazine article in which happy marriage looks like corporate middle management. #RandolphHarris 2 of 13

The smoothly functioning team is the well-oiled relationship between two persons who remain strangers all their lives. It is a lot like the 16 April 2010 film starring Demi Moore and David Duchovny called The Joneses in which a picture perfect family is actually a team of beautiful and handsome models selected by a corporation to move into a McMansion in a wealthy neighbourhood and stealthy market products to  the residents by making the products look cool and appealing, but then things get out of control, as this type of love as a haven from aloneness is bound to fail. To love at all is to be engaged with humankind, with open eyes. Therefore, the arts should be taught, for art is a general human talent and conducive to the harmonious unfolding of a person’s inner life. Many people who teach art, colour theory, or explain a purposeful violation of perspective, or when analyzing a favourite painting like Vincent van Gogh’s The Starry Night, 1889, feel like a magician. They can hear the student’s oohs and ahhs, and it makes a teacher feel like they have brought something of joy because everyone can feel the great art. In The Starry Night, life and death—the town and the Heavens—collide, and they are connected by both the church spire and the swaying cypress, a tree traditionally used to mark graves in southern France and Italy. #RandolphHarris 3 of 13

 Babe, you really screwed up the courage to send off your poetry when only seventeen? You are amazing! Did you know while he was living in the southern French town of Arles, Vincent van Gogh produced a truly amazing quantity of work: 200 paintings, over 100 drawings and watercolours, and roughly 200 letters, mostly written to his brother Theo. Many of these letters help us understand the expressive energies released in his creative outburst. However, our eyes are on the horizon, no words are needed. Babe, I am sorry you have not heard from your husband in quite some time. Happy that you feel comfortable corresponding with me and it keeps you from feeling grim. And, if you do not mind me doing the math, younger than I thought for someone so obviously distinguished. Seventeen when you started and, checking the date in the front of your first book, only twenty-two now. You tease about being “old,” but there are only four years between us. I pray that your photo sitting went well, if it has happened yet, and that you were not resigned to wearing your antiquated trousers or being photographed among the sheep. I should dearly like to see the result. May bright Sunshine, youthful joy, beautiful appearance and comfortable smile belong to you forever! “Those called according to God’s foreknowledge are left to choose good or evil,” reports Alma 13.3. #RandolphHarris 4 of 13

Our earner prayer should be that we will have the courage required to refrain from judging others, the courage to be chaste and virtuous, and the courage to stand firm for truth and righteousness. In our day, we are striving to enter a land of promise. Our greatest goal is to obtain eternal life with our Heavenly Father. We can find courage and strength in the promise that the Lord will always be there for us and will never leave us alone. We are taught that Heavenly Father knows and loves each of his children. As his precious children, we have access to God’s assurance and guidance through the power of prayer. “Be thou humble; and the Lord thy God shall lead thee by the hand, and give thee answers to thy prayers,” reports Doctrine and Covenants. We should believe these words and the promise that our Heavenly Father does hear and answer our prayers. It is important to keep in mind patience is required when we are waiting upon the Lord. As we wait, we may begin to believe that we have been forsaken or that our prayers were not heard or that possibly we are not worthy to have them answered. This is not true. “I waited patiently for the Lord; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry,” reports Psalm 40.1. No matter what we may face in our personal journey, we must pray, be patient, and remember God’s promise. “I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee,” reports Joshua 1.5.  #RandolphHarris 5 of 13

Many reactions to loneliness lead inexorably to greater isolation. So many people seem to be battling against the lack of love in our society, and yet their struggle leads to more loneliness because they equate love with objects. They try to find love through the use of objectivity, an intellectual response that can only lead to greater isolation. In a similar fashion, an elaborate loneliness trap has been woven by those who suggest that modern men and women should be totally self-sufficient and independent. Interpersonal freedom is the melody they play, and thousands now march in step behind them. These pipers trap people because they make them feel guilty for even admitting that they are lonely; they insinuate that it is a sign of weakness to admit publicly that a person really needs someone else. The search for interpersonal freedom and the resultant loneliness appear in many forms. One of the more fashionable forms to emerge in the last decade is the identity crisis, which involves knowing who you are and doing your own thing, and doing it your way, just do it. The most important goal is to become a real person, and this apparently is accomplished by becoming different from everyone else. Great fear is expressed at the thought of being only marginally different—the cleavage between the individual and everybody else must be sharp and total. The search for one’s own identity cannot be found with somebody else; it is a private, solitary, and lonely struggle. #RandolphHarris 6 of 13

If not with other people, where then can people seek their identities? That is the crisis question, and many resolve it by equating their identity with their careers. Careers become the main objective, and everything else becomes secondary. One’s spouse, family, friends, relaxation, aesthetic interests, all must play second fiddle to the pursuit of a successful career. In its most acute form, this process leads to the extreme development of the Type A character.  Type A people are often driven and work-addicted, and they often end up in total social isolation—and can die from premature coronary disease (a heart condition). There are, however, far more subtle loneliness traps in our society. Not every lonely person is trapped by interest in a career, pursuit of independence, or a love-seeking belief system. Many lonely people are not particularly hung up about these issues. Many readily admit that they would give anything if they could find their soulmate with whom they could share all of eternity. And yet, they still find themselves enmeshed in isolation. Part of the problem is that we have very few formal institutions that deal specifically with problems of human loneliness. This is a particularly glaring weakness when one considers that there are formal institutions for practically every other human problems. #RandolphHarris 7 of 13

Restaurants feed people, schools teach the uneducated, Alcoholics Anonymous treat the addicted, mastectomy and colostomy groups organize to discuss their physical issues, Parten Teacher Associations meet to help the schools, Home Owner Associations gather to protect the conformity and security of the community (for a fee), and so forth. On closer examination, however, it becomes apparent that the great majority of these organizations have a major covert prerequisite. The person must either already av a companionship or declare himself or herself to be suffering from an infirmary. These covert requirements make it difficult for those lacking companionship to find legitimate social outlets in existing groups. However, if we proclaim the fatherhood of God, the infinite worth of the human soul, and the ethical ideal of the kingdom God, and by daily scripture study, we invite the Spirit of God into our life. Within the pages of the scriptures are countless directions, promises, solutions, and reminders that will help us in our journey to the land of promise. We should also contemplate the scriptures daily so that we can find prosperity and success. Heavenly Father knows our individual journeys are not easy. We are faced every day with situations that require courage and strength. #RandolphHarris 8 of 13

Heavenly Father knows and loves each of us. If we turn to him, he will not fail us. God will bless us with the strength and the courage we will need to complete our journey back to him. Evidence shows the people can tolerate major areas of dissatisfaction (that is, discount their importance) if they have many beneficial enjoyments in life, such as social contacts, opportunities for entertainment, and so forth. The question of what conditions are necessary for happiness is manifestly a question for scientific psychology. Like religious faith, love is a practice. It takes discipline, concentration, patience, and the mastery of art. Who must we be? What attitudes must we hold? Like freedom, love demands courage. Love is a capacity we can develop in ourselves. To change the love we receive, we will have to change our capacity to love. God knows our weaknesses, and he knows what is at stake. However, he agrees with our goals—agrees that love matters, and not some superficial version of it. One who knows nothing, loves nothing. One who can do nothing understands nothing. However, one who understand also loves, notices, and sees. The more knowledge is inherent in a thing, the greater the love. Anyone who imagines that all fruits ripen at the same time as the strawberries knows nothing about grapes. #RandolphHarris 9 of 13

Our love is a pleasant sensation, which to experience is a matter of chance, something one falls into if one is lucky. People think love is important, but not everyone is starved for it; they watch endless films about happy and unhappy love stories like Home Again starring Reese Witherspoon, and Queen of the Damned starring Aaliyah, they listen to songs about love like Stars are Blind by Paris Hilton—yet hardly anyone thinks that there is anything that needs to be learned about love. Most people see the problem of love primarily as that of being loved, rather that that of loving, of one’s capacity to love. Hence the problem to them is how to be loved, how to be loveable. In pursuit of this aim they follow several paths. One, which is especially used by men and now increasingly women, is to be successful, to be as powerful and rich as Donald Trump. Another, used by men and women, is t make oneself attractive, by cultivating one’s body, dress, hair, bleaching their teeth, spending five hours a day in the gym, and dieting. Some people also learn how to cook and keep a good house and peaceful house so their potential mate will feel comfortable. Other ways of making oneself attractive are to develop pleasant manners, interesting conversation, to be helpful, modest, inoffensive. People think that to love is simple, but that to find the right object to love—or to be loved by—is difficult. Personally, I want to love my home and garden and want it to love me back. I believe once I am satisfied with my life, love will come along. #RandolphHarris 10 of 13

In the Victorian era, as in many traditional cultures, love was mostly not a spontaneous personal experience which then might lead to marriage. On the contrary, marriage was contracted by convention—either by the respective families, or by a marriage broker, and usually the participating parties were notified before hand as to what was going on. Even if the marriage was forced, for economic or political power, the party was explicitly made aware of what was going on. Love was supposed to develop once the marriage had been concluded, and for such marriages to take place, the bridge had to get instant gratification out of it usually by only being married to a rich man with a fabulous house. For this reason, women were expected to be virgins and very attractive. In China, because there are now 9 men for every woman, the scripted has somewhat been flipped. Men are expected to be rich, have a house in a highly desired community, well educated, attractive and have an excellent career. In the last few generations the concept of romantic love has become almost universal in the Western World with the equality of women because now many women are earning more than men. #RandolphHarris 11 of 13

Attractive usually means a nice package of qualities which are popular and sought after on the personality market. What specifically makes a person attractive depends on the fashion of the time, physically as well as mentally. The sense of falling in love develops usually only with regard to such human commodities as are within reach of one’s own possibilities for exchange. I am out for a bargain; the object should be desirable from the standpoint of its social value, and at the same time should want me, considering my overt and hidden assets and potentialities. Two persons this fall in love when they feel they have found the best objects available on the market, considering the limitations of their own exchange values. Often, as buying real estate, the hidden potentialities which can be developed play a considerable role in this bargain. In a culture in which the marketing orientation prevails, and in which material success is the outstanding value, there is little reason to be surprised that human love relations follow the same pattern of exchange which governs the commodity and the labour market. The cost for the acquisition of human companionship soars into uncounted billions of dollars in the United States of America alone. It would seem that society could find less expensive ways for delivering human attention, which is why I want my dream house and the perfect garden to love where I can enjoy the glowing sky, babe! #RandolphHarris 12 of 13

If love is a capacity of the mature, productive character, it follows that the capacity to love in an individual living in any given culture depends on the influence this culture has on the character of the average person. If we speak about love in contemporary Western culture, we mean to ask whether the social structure of Western civilization and the spirit resulting from it are conducive to the development of love. No objective observer of our Western life can doubt that love is a relatively rare phenomenon, and that its place is taken by a number of forms of pseudo-love which are in reality so many forms of the disintegration of love.  Capitalistic society is based on the principle of political freedom on the one hand, and of the market as the regulator of all economic, hence social relations, on the other. The commodity market determines the conditions under which commodities are exchanged, the labour market regulates the acquisition and sale of labour. Both useful things and useful human energy and skill are transformed into commodities which are exchanged without the use of force and without fraud under the conditions of the market. Shoes, useful and needed as they may be, have no economic value (exchange value) if there is no demand for them on the market; human energy ad skill are without exchange value if there is no demand for them under existing market conditions. The owner of capital can buy labour and command it to work for the profitable investment of his or her capital. The owner of a labour must sell it to capitalists under the existing market conditions, unless he or she is to starve. This economic structure is reflected in a hierarchy of values. Capital commands labour; amassed things, that which are rare, are of superior value to labour. #RandolphHarris 13 of 13