A Lifetime of Thanks & Acknowledgements

THANKS AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
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RonPrice
Post subject: THANKS AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Posted: Wed Oct 24, 2012 2:42 pm
Joined: Mon
Jan 24, 2011
10:56 pm
Posts: 128
Location:
George Town
Tasmania
Australia
Nationality:
Canadian
Preamble
Part 1:
What follows is a series of 6 posts on one thread here at this International F
where I've been posting for several years. I have posted between 100 and 200
words at this site, at least two good-sized books. Perhaps after my demise, an
to take place as the clock-flies, as tempus fugit, as my mother used to say, pe
will be made of all my posts. I am somewhat inclined to the view that, for mi
people, books are somewhat passe, even declasse, to chose a word that rarely
these days. Still, given the yin and yang of life and the complexityof so many
sure there are also more books being read now in 2013 than at any other time
especially given the world's population of 7.3 billion compared to 2.3 in 1944
was born.
I get an invitation every two or three weeks from the administrators and mod

add another post at this international forum. Although there are only 6 posts
series, on this thread, readers will quickly tire if they attempt to read all my 5
the summary statement at the end in one reading, in one go.
There are some 40,000 words and 120 pages(font-14) in the statement below
scan this lengthy document---is my advice, read until you get tired or lose int
goes without saying, just don't read it. In this latter case, go somewhere else:
and/or enjoy whatever images(moving or still) catch your fancy and interests
make whatever clever or funny, or both, remarks you can make at some socia
networking site(SNS), and/or (iii) to enjoy your enthusiasms and passions---b
there are plenty of things in cyberspace you might enjoy more than reading w
found below.
There is now plenty to do in real space and getting entangled in my extensive
appreciation to and for: (a) a myriad of people, places and things, and (b) asp
life over the last 70 years since my conception some time in mid-October 19
be the best use of your time. But I leave you to work out how to use your tim
reading this statement attracts your interest, go for it aned may it be of some
value.
I began posting the following piece at this International Forum on 24/10/'1
latest addition, this last piece of editing, was placed here three months later o
-Ron Price, Tasmania, Australia
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Preamble
Part 2:
In some of my childhood years and adolescence, the ages 9 to 19, and the fir
my young adulthood, 20 to 30, the seeds of what I believed, and still believe
divine knowledge were sown in the soil of my heart.(1) These were the years
from 1953 to 1975 in my lifespan. It was a heart which had its pure parts and
by the age of 30, its share of impure elements, loves of various kinds that inc
ere in my ways, inclinations that would have been better if they were not par
and immaturities that took decades to learn to deal with, and some of which I
dealing with.
Life is a long path of learning, and the two decades from the first years of my
childhood to the beginning of the last decade of my young adulthood, age 9 t
were formative ones. For many reasons I kept that divine knowledge to whic
part of my first organized and articulate belief system, hidden---at least most
the disinterest of those around me in the content of that knowledge. We all h
which parts of life's knowledge-base we want to make permanent, or at least

part of our lives, and which parts to share with others. Most of those I knew i
childhood, adolescence and young adulthood, the 1950s through the 1970s, c
the beliefs of their parents or opted for atheism, agnosticism, or one of the m
of secular humanism centering their lives in the process on: family, job, a ran
personal interests from TV to gardening, from cooking to sport.
"To each their own", seems to be the adage. Not everyone wants to investiga
investigate, or engage in whatever is our romance or religion, our personal re
everyone is going to share our particular interests: whoever we are and whate
interests. Much sadness results from hoping others will be enthusiastic about
have enthusiasms. Much loneliness comes from the simple inability to be abl
out solitude with the joys of aloneness and the various activities associated w
contemplation, the intellectual side of life and enjoying one's own company.
50s I had had enough of the social world and yearned for aloneness, but not e
experiences this fatigue with people that I did after 50 years of a highly socia
gregarious life-style.
It took me some years to learn not to expect others to be enthusiastic about w
enthusiastic about; unrealistic expectations dot the lives of most of us and lea
way or another, to a certain sadness.
Perhaps that knowledge, that divine knowledge, to which I refer above was a
hidden from others, as well as myself, by those mysterious dispensations of P
and my own incapacities. I was unaware in those early years of my life of the
truths and wisdoms of this earthly and etherial wisdom that had come into m
early as '53. These truths and wisdoms only gradually became part of my und
only gradually became part of my everyday use in practice. And, again, what
regard as truths and wisdoms is not and has not been shared with everyone el
life, especially family and friends who were close to me. My belief that the B
was the latest, the newest, of the Abrahamic religions was not shared with m
I came to know in life.
Gradually, though, more and more pennies dropped as I went through the las
young adulthood(30-40), middle age(40-60), and the first decade of late adul
70). I will be 70 in 18 months from now, on 23/7/'14, and, if good health stay
hope to become a centenarian in 2044 and get my letter from the Queen or K
members of Commonwealth countries have done since 1917. The Anniversa
at Buckingham Palace is responsible for sending-out such letters. Most of the
dropped in the form of my writing prose and poetry, although excellent treatm
my bipolar disorder were like gifts from the gods, so to speak. These treatme
stages from the 1960s to the last 9 months of 2012 and 2013.
In the first 9 years of my late adulthood(60 to 69), on retirement and on two

pensions, and especially the years after the age of 65 in 2009, hyacinths of a
wisdom finally began to spring from my heart, at least that was my view, if n
of all my readers and friends. Those hyacinths had begun to spring-forth befo
of 65 in sensible and not so sensible ways. As I look back over the decades o
can see that they have been in evidence perhaps as far back as the 1950s, but
evidence was not as abundant as it became, as it bloomed in my 60s. This, of
what you might call a personal retrospective, a personal reflection on the 7 d
have been my life thusfar.
There were also wisdoms that sprang from mire and clay, from my shadowy
ephemeral attachments(2). So it was that I felt I always had to analyse my vi
refine them and so come to understand them more deeply than I once had. Fo
above, life is one long path of learning and discovery, making mistakes, falli
and getting up to try again. In some ways it is not the falling down that is cru
getting back up and continuing the journey, the battle, the road of life. There
some people in my life who possess a persistence in dealing with their tests a
difficulties and they have been like mentors, even though they often did not k
One person who has been my mentor in this regard has been my second wife
had to deal with fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome or just the probl
assoicated with hypothyriodism in recent years, to say nothing of her two ma
and a hystorectomy. Indeed, she has had a list of psychological and physical
that were enough to sink a ship, so to speak. I am one of those fair-weather c
who feel good when life is good, and when I am in physical discomfort I do
with it with stamina and persistence, patience and a long-suffering attitude. I
appreciation to her in more detail further-on in this statement.
In our complex world it is somewhat presumptuous to claim to possess any w
Virtually all of whatever wisdom is mine was obtained from others: from rea
observing and, as I say, from learning by my mistakes. I leave it to readers to
evidence of any wisdom or lack of it in the lengthy statement below and in m
writings---which readers can now access in cyberspace if they are interested.
ways, I feel I have only made a start along this lengthy path of wisdom acqui
to this link, if you are interested, for the latest of my annual emails/letters for
the current state of play in my life:http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.p
Ron-Price-s-Annual-Email-for-2012-1st-Edition&p=3452639#post3452639
If this link proves too difficult to access, just go to my website by googling th
Pioneering Over Five Epochs. Then go to the sub-section on Autobiography.
lead you to the link to my annual letters for 2011/12, 2012/13, and 2013/14.
Preamble:

Part 3:
The life and ideas, writings and analysis of the Roman emperor, Marcus Aur
180 A.D.) and the British historian Arnold Toynbee (1889-1975) taught me a
times from my university days(1963-1967) to the years of my retirement from
and casual-volunteer work(2006-2012) by their example. I still worked for se
causes, mostly in cyberspace and to some extent in real space. These were ca
which I have been committed for various lengths of time from the 1950s to th
decade of the 21st century.
These two historians, philosophers and poets taught me, or at least I learned
their works, how good and how pleasant it is for a writer and author, a poet a
publisher, an editor and researcher, an online journalist and blogger---like my
declare his gratitude to those in his life whose words and sentences, lives and
found their way inexplicably into his life and, he likes to think, into his soul.
Wishing to delight myself, in part because I am a writer and author, I now gi
expression of thanks for the virtues and actions of those who have lived with
privacy of my inner chamber and in my social life, to those many sources of
and pleasure which have enriched my life. I now want to thank those who ha
me rise, at least partly, from the prison of self to some of the glorious meads
at least to some extent, from this mortal cage unto parts of the paradise of the
(3) -Ron Price with the deepest appreciation for (1)Baha’u’llah’s Hidden W
Persian, # 36, and (3) #39; and (2) Baha’u’llah, Tablet of the True Seeker, Gl
Baha’i Pub. Trust, Wilmette, 1956(1939), p. 264.
I first came across the statements of appreciation & acknowledgement that th
two wonderful writers, to whom I have been indebted for their writings, had
to those to whom they were indebted nearly 50 years ago. It is high time for
express my own thanks and acknowledgements in relation to my indebtednes
to people, places and things, in my life. This statement is now some 40,000 w
120 pages, using font-14, in length--hence the need for readers to glance ligh
document, skim or scan, read every word, if they are so inclined or, as I say a
not read the following.-Ron Price, Statement of Thanks and Acknowledgemen
updated on 25/1/'13.
Preamble:
Part 4:
This statement follows many paths and includes many approaches to the ove
the comprehensive presentation and picture of my thanks and acknowledgem
readers will find this recitation, this account, far too circuitous, far too length

detailed for their liking. I write this piece mainly for my own interest and, if
it also of interest, so much the better.
One could go on endlessly, on such a topic, thanking the universe for staying
and not wandering out of balance, thanking all the asteroids for not running i
planet, and on and on might go some litany by a writer who writes compulsiv
have come to do to some extent in this the evening of my life---having retired
PT and as much volunteer work as possible and having also limited my socia
engagements to a minimum.
One must draw the line somewhere, and I have done so below. Like all such
it is a quite personal and idiosyncratic one.-Ron Price, Australia, written ove
24 October 2012 to 25 January 2013 in the second-half of my 69th year.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Part 1: PEOPLE
To my Mother for helping to awaken in me a love for music and words, poe
prose as well as a sensitivity to the religious and philosophical aspects of life
there, of course, from my inception, and my earliest memories in 1947/8 con
kindness and gentleness, her long-suffering persistence, and her many ways a
of exposing me to the input of a religious and poetic sensibility, an intellectu
social responsibility.
If my Mother had not been there giving to my mind and heart that early bent
direction that became more and more evident as my teens turned into my twe
my twenties into my thirties, I have little doubt that I would not now be writi
words. She is responsible, in part at least, for the general orientation of my li
ways my orientation is very different from hers. We each must seek our own
As the Lebanese-American artist, poet, and writer Kahlil Gibran wrote about
who held a babe against her bosom and who said: "Speak to us of Children."
said: "Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters o
longing for itself. They come through you but not from you, And though they
you, yet they belong not to you. You may give them your love but not your t
For they have their own thoughts. You may house their bodies but not their s
their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even
dreams."
and he went on:
"You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you. For life
backward nor tarries with yesterday. You are the bows from which your chil
living arrows are sent forth. The archer sees the mark upon the path of the in

He bends you with His might that His arrows may go swift and far. Let your
the archer's hand be for gladness; For even as he loves the arrow that flies, so
also the bow that is stable."
----------------------
To my Father for the example of his quietness and hard-working life, for giv
to my mother and I, and for being an example to me of another type of persis
patience, for his sin-covering eye and for his always exerting an effort in the
remember him, in his 60s and early 70s, when his fatherly advice and his hav
embraced a new Faith in the evening of his life helped to give a direction to m
life's early morning especially the years 1953 to 1965.
-----------------------------
To my first and my second wife, two women who also taught me by their e
first marriage was over the 6 year period: 8/1967 to 12/1973, and that first w
Gower, now Judy Noack, age 65) taught me, or gave me the daily example o
spontaneity and a delight in life, among other things. She was also a fine prim
teacher and went on to teach for more than 40 years retiring in June 2012.
In the case of my second wife whom I have now known from 2/'74 to 1/'13, 3
experienced a woman who had the ability to give and to endure in the face of
difficulties. I do not possess that ability, that capacity to endure the slings an
outrageous fortune to anything like the same extent as is her endurance. But
pointed the way for me to at least try within the context of my incapacity. I h
more time with my second wife than any other person on earth, and I thank h
myriad things she has done to and for me, for helping me raise three children
accompanying me into the evening of my life as helpmate and companion, fr
colleague.
She and I will, I hope, go the distance together into the evening and, indeed,
nighttime hours of our earthly life. It is my belief that we shall also go into th
lights, that "undiscovered country", as Shakespeare says in his famous solilo
Hamlet, "from whose bourn No traveller returns/ puzzles the will, And make
bear those ills we have/Than fly to others that we know not of?"
-----------------------------
To my 1 child, 2 step-children, one grand-child, & 3 step-grandchildren
to give me a sense of a normal, or should I say, somewhat traditional life-nar
lifespan. In the last several decades with the breakdown of the traditional fam
West there has arisen a multitude of family types: (i) single parent with kids,
parent with no kids, (iii)partners who are, as they say, in de facto relationship
people having affairs within the context of one of the variety of marital relati
homosexual and lesbian family arrangements, (vi) married with no kids, (vii)
marriage, (viii) common-law marriage, and (ix) marriage with partners who d
leaving the other partner alone, inter alia.

A common-law marriage can also be known as a sui juris marriage, that is, a
marriage, or marriage by habit and repute; this is an irregular form of marriag
be legally contracted in an extremely limited number of jurisdictions. Comm
marriage should not be confused with non-marital relationship contracts, whi
two people living together without holding themselves out to the world as sp
and/or without legal recognition as spouses in the jurisdiction where the cont
formed.
Non-marital relationship contracts are not necessarily recognized from one ju
to another whereas common law marriages are, by definition, legally valid m
worldwide provided the parties comply with the requirements to form a valid
while living in a jurisdiction that still allows this irregular form of marriage t
contractedinter alia. I have now enjoyed, at least for the most part, some 46 y
marriage(1967-2013) in two affinal families.
A marital relationship is, for most people, a demanding one and a context for
deal of significant learning in the path of life. It is also a context for the raisin
children, an exercise in which I have now been involved for nearly 40 years
seen them grow from childhood to the stages of early adulthood(20-40), and
adulthood(40 to 60). My oldest step-daughter is now 47, and I came into her
she was 8 in 1974.
I should also add here that I had the pleasure of growing-up in what sociolog
consanguineal family of three in which I was the only child of older parents.
was 40 when I was born and my father 55. I was able to start life on a solid b
values and beliefs from these two souls to whom I was the fruit of their life.
the benefit of my grandfather's presence to the age of 3 in Hamilton Ontario
born.
As I have grown into my late adulthood, the years from 60 to 80, according t
many models of human development in the lifespan used by psychologists, I
become much more conservative, much more appreciative of tradition, of fam
the loyalty of a partner, of the importance to me of someone with whom I ha
most of my life, and will share my future years until one of us passes from th
coil. My relationship is not, nor has it always been, easy, but that is true of ne
the really important relationships in my life and, I might add, most other peo
-------------------------------
My family, both my consanguineal and two affinal families, required of me m
patience and kindness than I thought I had, as well as more self-discipline, se
forgetfulness, and the need to persist and keep going to maintain the links tha
and should be, but not always are, part of the family bond. In the process I w
provide both financial support, a home and hearth, and protection from life’s
was also able to be as good an example as possible of how to live to my seve

and grand-children. sometimes even the power of negative example, it a pow
for one's children.
Being at first a child, in my case, a son of two legally married parents over 2
the death of my father, and then a step-parent, a step-grandparent over 19 yea
as well as a parent and a grandparent over 35 and 2 years respectively---has g
set of roles in life which have taught me many things, too many things to list
I am still learning in these several roles, and things I may not have learned ha
been at first a child, then a step-parent, a parent, a step-grand-parent, and a g
Each of these family units: consanguineal, and affinal, has demanded of me a
in terms of patience and endurance, compassion and a wide range of human v
sometimes thought I was being tested beyond my capacity but, in retrospect,
think this has been the case. I have Baha'u'llah's words to confirm this view.
have His words to confirm many of my ideas in life, words which have given
of certitude that has been an asset all my adult life. Everyone in life has their
insofar as the acquisition of good human qualities is concerned. A significan
story has been in the roles of a quite traditional life-narrative of the lifespan.
thankful for that.
---------------------------------------------------------------
To my grandfather, and my mother’s brother and sister for yet other exa
of how to live, what to do with my time, and what to strive-after in life's jour
generosity and kindness in my formative years, my childhood and adolescen
never forget and those qualities have helped to give me, even now, a sense of
foundation for the living of my life, as well as its meaning and purpose. By t
was 40 they had all left this earthly life, and I could begin my years of spiritu
as Baha'u'lah calls the age of 40.
--------------------------
Part 2: TWO SPECIAL HISTORIANS
To Arnold Toynbee, Edward Gibbon and a Host of Historians for their s
intellectual prowess and occupation, their persistence in achieving their litera
and purposiveness, their self-discipline and concentration, their eager appetit
knowledge and their ambition to carry out the duties imposed on them by the
curiosity and their creative intellectual work.
-------------------------------
Part 3:
To People and Institutions, Landscapes and Buildings, Photographs and
Pictures, Radio and Books
Part 3.1: MORE PEOPLE

My curiosity was stirred, and meaning and pleasure in my life was enhanced
the above. This Part 1, though, deals with the multitude of people up to the a
end of the first decade of my young adulthood. There were several people wh
into my life, from the age of 9 to 30, as a result of my association with the Ba
beginning at the age of 9 in 1953. Some of these people were academics: Jam
an anthropologist, and Douglas Martin, a historian; Michael Rochester a phy
his wife, Elizabeth, a psychologist-social worker; Nancy Campbell, a dancin
and prominent Baha'i in southern Ontario, and several others whose names I
forgotten.
In addition there were others who were working men and women from many
life: John and Hattie Dixon, Fred Graham, Lulu Barr, Loretta Francis and so
others to whom I owe so many different things, too many to list here.
Jameson Bond helped the penny to drop in my academic and professional ca
critical turning point from October 1965 to May 1967 while I was in my last
of university. I decided at that time to travel-and-pioneer among the Inuit and
had to qualify as a primary school teacher. So it was that, on finishing my B.
I entered teachers’ college in the small Baha’i community of Windsor Ontari
most southerly city, where Jameson Bond was a professor of anthropology at
University of Windsor.
I spent most of the next four decades(1967-2007) as a teacher and lecturer, a
several other jobs in the international pioneer field, jobs and roles which read
can survey at LindedIn, Facebook, and in the CV, the resume which follows
lengthy thread.
----------------------
Douglas Martin was a high school history teacher, and a member of the nati
spiritual assembly of the Baha’is of Canada when he came into my life in my
of high school. He often took me to discussions, or firesides as Baha'is call th
Toronto and to Baha’i summer schools in Michigan and in northern Ontario.
he was arguably the Canadian Baha’i community’s best public speaker. I hea
innumerable public talks and his style and manner, his ideas and intellect stim
early development of my own ideas in relation to the Baha’i Faith among oth
I have kept my interest in history from the 1950s to this second decade of the
century, and his influence is difficult to quantify.
--------------------------------
I will not site chapter and verse of the influence of many other Baha’is in my
adolescence, and young adulthood---in whose homes I spent some time, occa
with my parents, sometimes with my first wife, and often on my own. These
were ordinary men and women whom I got to know in my childhood, my tee
twenties due to a degree of social intimacy, domestic familiarity, and persona
that I cannot put into words. The full measure of what they have given to me

feelings for them, even after the passing of more than 40 to 60 years, is impo
me to express in a few words. Indeed, it requires an autobiography which is n
2600 pages.
-------------------------------------
There were, of course, many others from many walks in life: dozens of teach
professors, lecturers and tutors, and 100s of fellow workers, colleagues, and
over an 18 year period, as well as the literally 1000s of students I taught over
In the many jobs I had over the years 1955 to 2005 there were too many to ev
a cursory summary. It would require too many words to give them, each and
just place in this already lengthy statement. Perhaps, at a future time, I will tr
on a small handful of the 1000s of people I have summarized in the above pa
----------------------------
Scholars from many fields. I will write about only one, although there have
many that to discuss them below would require many pages. I will deal with
an example from the many possible ones. My prose and my poetry mentions
these influences and readers who would like an extension of this section are
to read some of my several million words, and more than 7000 prose-poems.
Erich Fromm(1900-1980):
Part 3.2:
Fromm was German social psychologist, psychoanalyst, sociologist, humani
philosopher and theorist who brought other theories together. He also empha
person's personality is embedded in class, status, education, vocation, your re
philosophical background and so forth. Since this autobiography and my per
embedded to a great extent in these factors that Fromm describes, it seems tim
this first expression of thanks to scholars with these words on Fromm.
I read Fromm's books off and on for thirty years. -Ron Price with thanks to M
Maccoby, "The Two Voices of Erich Fromm: The Prophetic and the Analytic
July/August 1994. The year I began my pioneering experience, 1962, Erich F
American psychoanalyst and prolific writer in the field of existential psychol
his 'credo' in his book Beyond the Chains of Illusions. I have written some
below since it was consistent with my views back in 1962 and still is. I have
on some of his Credo expressing views that have remained part of my beliefs
pioneering venture spanning, as it does now, more than fifty years.
Part 3.2.1:
"The most important factor for the development of the individual is the struc
values of the society into which he has been born." Given this fact, my role a
has been to spend my life trying to build the kind of society fit for human bei

born into. For, as Fromm says in his Credo, "society has both a furthering an
inhibiting function. Only in cooperation with others, and in the process of wo
man develop his powers, only in the historical process do humans create them
Only when society's aim will have become identical with the aims of humani
society cease to cripple man and to further evil."
In attempting to transform society, Fromm underestimated the need for indiv
adapt to their society. For the Baha'i to be an effective teacher, propagator, o
Society he has become associated with, he needs to adapt to the larger societ
he has been born and in which he lives his life. The difficulties I had in the fi
of my pioneering experience came, it seems to me in retrospect, from a slow
my society. Later, in the following decades, my effectiveness was due signifi
my more effective adapting to my society.
This adaptive process is slow and arduous work and, for Baha'is, it takes plac
context of action toward goals using a map provided by the Founders of their
and the legitimate Successors. "I believe that every man represents humanity
different as to intelligence, health and talents. Yet we are all one. We are all
sinners, adults and children, and no one is anybody's superior or judge. We h
awakened with the Buddha, we have all been crucified with Christ, and we h
killed and robbed with Genghis Khan, Stalin, and Hitler. Man's task in life is
the paradoxical one of realizing his individuality and at the same time transce
and arriving at the experience of universality. Only the fully developed indiv
can drop the ego."
Perhaps this is one way of defining the nature of 'Abdu'l-Baha and the reason
effectiveness and efficiency. -Ron Price, Pioneering Over Four Epochs, 9 O
2002.
Part 4: INSTITUTIONS
The Guardianship and the Universal House of Justice are twin-institution
Baha’i Faith that have guided my steps over my entire Baha’i life and have in
my beliefs and actions in more ways than I can count. They have also mainta
unity of this newest of the world’s Abrahamic religions, a unity which is perh
Faith's greatest achievement in a world in which all the major religions are fr
a multitude of sects and cults, denominations and branches, divisions, isms a
The Central Figures of the Baha’i Faith, and their successors, Shoghi Effend
Universal House of Justice have provided me with a core of ethical and mora
with spiritual and intellectual examples and models, aims and purposes, goal
meanings, ways and means on how to live my life, and contribute to the build
new society, global and unified---a process that will take several centuries.

Part 4.1Baha'i Administration:
Serving in various aspects of the elected and appointed side of Baha’i admin
has been a learning experience from the word go. I have served on local spiri
assemblies, off and on, since 1966. It has provided a wonderful opportunity t
know people in demanding personal circumstances. The Baha'i Faith is not o
a passive congregationalism; it is not one with a comforting and regular ritua
induces what is often a sort of aesthetic religiosity, a bit like a spectator-spor
religion in the west, what remains from the acids of secularism, is something
from the wider society, but not something that one invests a great deal of tho
Baha'i Faith requires a much more active commitment.
I cannot think of any other experience I have had with people that affords thi
particularly useful, invaluable lesson in understanding human character, than
community experience in the Baha'i Faith. At the same time, I must warn the
human nature, as the essayist William Hazlitt(1778-1830) also warns, that “t
learn, the less I understand it.” This is a complex and subtle question which r
separate essay to deal with its implications.
One would hope that, with the insights of over one hundred years of social sc
behind us, we would have come to understand humankind more. In some wa
There is nothing that helps a man more in his travel through life than a just
understanding of his own characteristic weaknesses. In consulting, for that is
Baha'is use for attempting a dispassionate and cordial discussion of issues at
assembly meetings, an individual is made more than a little aware of his inad
his inabilities, his utter ineptitudes, in addition to his strengths. In my early y
assembly work, until I came to Australia, my main problem was focussing su
on the topic at hand in order to make a useful contribution. I got lost in the m
views.
Once I had mastered the problem of dealing with complexity in the consultat
at least enough to deal with some of the subjects--I went on to other skills. It
several hundred hours to get this far. I was a slow learner. Keeping my ego o
way was always a challenge. Not dominating; not reacting to punitive rebutta
own heat were new problems for me by the 1970s. I’m still working on them
soon as I think I’m winning I get plastered again. It is a long road travelled a
the old ego quite manageable, or should I say nicely tested, on a weekly or fo
basis. I am now retired and participate in the consultative process of Baha'i
administration far less than I once did.
Part 4.2:

Perhaps it is just a sign of age, or that familiarity breeds fatigue, or that after
decades of serving with the aim of increasing the number of believers and ge
discouragingly meagre response year after year, but ennui creeps in, sometim
engulfing weariness with it all. Except for a short period of statistical success
1960s and early 1970s---it has been slow slogging. A certain persistence, ded
devotion to duty all come into play or one would simply wither on the vine. C
spiritual muscle if you like.
The patience of Job and the wisdom of Solomon are useful but in short suppl
Baha'i Faith is like a large family and most people know how difficult famili
be. It is also one reason why so many in our world stay clear of participation
organizations, except those they have to like: work and school, or interest gro
tennis clubs, sport associations and film societies.
When one reads about(Priceless Pearl, p.451) about a special Baha'i known
Guardian and comes to know that he was “called by sorrow and a strange des
hopes into quietness” the heart responds with a “yes!” The Guardian comes c
is a revolution, the Baha'i Faith, with all the attributes of ordinariness and qu
am thankful to have been part of this quiet revolution.
I think that is one reason why those buildings on Mount Carmel lift my heart
partly to do with hundreds of meetings in lounge rooms being spiritually drie
asks many things of the believer: one of these things is the need to endure the
meetings. For some martyrdom in the West is associated more with meetings
jails, bullets, and physical persecution. Some may find I’m overstating it. Fo
probably am. In Shoghi Effendi’s first letter to Australia and New Zealand h
“severe mental tests”. Such tests take many forms and I’m sure they are not o
us in this fourth epoch, seventy years after his letter.
Then, of course, there were the multitude of meetings over 4 decades of paid
employment and that is another story which I will save readers from a detaile
expatiation. In those four decades there were many I have to thank, and I do
this statement.
Part 5:
Part 5.1
Australian Government--Department of Human Services
There are many government departments in Australia which I must acknowle
give thanks to. Perhaps the DHS is one which has been of direct benefit to m
when I have been unemployed. Through the agency of Centrelink I was able

financial benefit: (i) for some 8 months in 1979-80, again (ii) from 8/'99 to 7
first, unemployment benefit and, second, disability benefit, and finally: (iii) f
the present on an old-age pension.
Part 5.2
Other Federal, State and Local Government Departments and Agencies
I will not list all of these sectors and sections of the three levels of governme
my life has been enmeshed in the 41 years I have lived in Australia, 1971 to
will I list the similar agencies in Canada in another form of federal parliamen
government where I lived my life from 1943 to 1971.
Part 6: LANDSCAPES
The bleak and lonely landscape of Ontario in winter and Baffin Island all yea
southern Ontario’s richly coloured but, paradoxically, obdurate autumnal can
hushed and howling drama of winter’s death, with Canada’s images of north
seasonality, and the clean-red spaciousness on all the old maps.
Australia’s searing heat, glaring sunlight and vast empty landscapes filled wi
and sand precipitate me into a nostalgia which helps to support my reality by
memories with spaces that I once thought were ordinary but, now in retrospe
be neither ordinary nor moderate. I have been intimidated by the relentless A
sun that so often oppressed my spirit as I walked through its vast territories, a
gardens. The freezing 30 to 50 below temperatures on the icy Arctic tundra a
often unalleviated glare are now memories as if they were part of the experie
someone else.
There were, and there are, other landscapes: (i) many of which have been bro
my life by cinema and TV which I write about below, and (ii) others in both
Australia which were far from bleak, far from excessively hot or cold, and fa
remote. I will leave it to readers to google those places, those two dozen tow
have lived in life, and the more than 100 to which I have travelled, to read ab
landscape and general geography.
Part 7: BUILDINGS
There have been many buildings both sacred and secular that have strongly i
my life, and they stand now as memories and icons, spaces and places with m
a certain sensory pleasure. The buildings and gardens at the Baha’i world cen
Israel, several Baha’i temples around the world, many of the homes I have li
beginning with my childhood and early adult life. There are, too, a myriad pl

architectural delight, too many to recount here, which with their historical se
significances influenced my life by providing individual mise en scenes, setti
beauty and a certain wonder.
In the years of my retirement, from the age of 55 to the present, I have had th
the leisure, to enjoy the immense variety of buildings that were presented on
architecture programs on television: temples and churches, mosques and relig
buildings from history, as well as the architecture of many civilizations and r
nations and cultures. After nearly 15 years of being able to take in such beau
organized form by scholars and commentators, I have had my life enriched a
years of my retirement may have a long way to go to continue this process of
aesthetic and intellectual education.
Part 8: PHOTOGRAPHS, MOVIES, VIDEOS AND DVDs
Preamble:
I must express my appreciation for the innumerable photos and movies, vide
DVDs. Although my experience with the print and electronic media: TV and
newspapers and magazines, journals and the internet, cassette tapes and CDs
videos--what gradually became a cornucopia of stimulating media--began to
my life insensibly and sensibly by 1950, the last 60+ years (1952-2012) have
immensely enhanced and refined by the content of these media. I must ackno
thanks to the sources of this vast field of experience that resulted from their p
my life.
The formal study of these media did not begin until my early 30s when I taug
studies at the Ballarat College of Advanced Education, now the university of
from 1976 to 1978. Again in the 1980s and 1990s at colleges of technical and
education in northern Australia, and then at the Thornlie Tafe College in Per
studies became a curriculum subject on my agenda. When I retired from teac
1999 I kept three arch-lever files of notes on media studies and in the dozen
since, 1999 to 2012, I have added several more files of notes and photocopie
The visual content of media in newspapers and magazines were part of my p
experience and they became part of mine, perhaps unconsciously, as early as
I was in the cradle. The story of the relationship between the print and electro
and my life over these seven decades is a long and complex one. Now, at the
have a base (a) in my files and on TV, as well as (b) on the internet, for the s
important part of my life and the life of my society.
The only years I had much to do with the formal study of film, what is now c
several names: film studies, cinema studies, the history of film, et cetera--wa

formal study was part of a media studies course that I taught at the Thornlie C
Tafe on two or three occasions in the early 1990s. I drew on films, video and
programs in my teaching all the way back to the 1960s. It was not until I reti
teaching, both FT and PT, as the new millennium turned its corner that these
and a serious study of these mediums slowly emerged. They had begun, they
etiology as the medical world calls beginnings, with some notes, notes I had
that course I taught in Tafe more than two decades ago in those early 1990s.
By November 2012, more than 13 years into my retirement, these film studie
media studies notes were expanded. They had begun to occupy all of volume
five of my media studies files with three additional special 2-ring binders for
5.1, Volume 5.2.1 directors, Volume 5.2.2 Actors and Volume 5.3 Actors. Th
on the Internet was absolutely burgeoning in the field of film studies and imp
cover in any systematic way because of (a) the wide ranging nature of my ac
interests and (b) the limitations of time and circumstance.
By November 2012, too, more than 13 years after retiring from full-time wor
taking a sea-change to Tasmania, I had notes on over 50 specific films and ac
1000s, as well as notes on many specific actors and directors. My study of th
film studies had really only just begun—the many aspects of film and its hist
clearly an interdisciplinary field. Some 60 years of ‘the movies’ provided a p
which I express my thanks and acknowledgements.
Part 8.1: PHOTOGRAPHS
While growing up in Canada and before leaving home and the region of sout
Ontario, first in 1966/7 and then in 1971, my mother and then my first wife t
serious interest in taking photos. In Australia before my divorce in 1974 my
Judy, continued her interest in photography and had her own dark room.
After 1974 until now, 2012, nearly 40 years, a series of people have contribu
part in providing the photographic base for this album: (a) the Baha’is for wh
photos may just be their only ritual; (b) my consanguineal family in Canada
affinal families in my life, one in Canada and the other in Australia; and (c) f
associations, work colleagues, et cetera in the many other communities I was
with in varying degrees during my life.
More recently, of course, since taking an early retirement and returning to Ta
1999 as well as the opening of the new millennium in 2001, I have begun to
more photos from: (a) my 2nd affinal family, the one here in Australia; (b) m
consanguineal family and the affinal family from her first marriage; (c) my f
2nd affinal family, the one from her second marriage after she and I divorced
(d) my consanguineal family in Canada; (e) people I met along the road of lif

and non-Baha’is, who have sent me photos since this album had its embryon
in 1992 and, finally, (f) a new set of people I have only begun to meet since m
George Town.
I have always thought that taking photos as a hobby, a serious leisure activity
a good idea. By the 1990s, with cameras becoming more versatile and cheap
were snapping more photos than ever, not so much in the way my first wife d
dark room and the study of photography as a serious leisure activity, but sim
hobby so that more photos could be enjoyed by family and friends.
Circumstances, other interests, problems with the mechanical and technical a
life and having others around who did the job with enthusiasm always seeme
against my using the camera and snapping photos. Like many things in life, t
taking photos more frequently than once a year, if that, remained just that: a
and it was never acted upon. It would seem, in retrospect, that print, talking a
and other activities, leisure and non-leisure, would occupy me-not taking pho
not in the past and not in the future and the remaining years of my life. Such
Others should therefore be given credit for the contents of this album. I only
the deck-chairs, as they say these days.
In the last years of my teaching career: FT, PT and volunteer teaching (1992-
album had its first shaping and in the following two years, 2006-2007, this al
assumed its present form. One can organize and reorganize photos, like so m
things in life forever, ad nauseam. After more than a dozen years of putting t
photos with their several embellishments into a useful shape for the future, I
for other activities that demand my attention and hold my interest to a greate
am happy with the general arrangement here. If it is to have any long term va
these photos are now in a form that might be useful to posterity, at least some
a future age. Time will tell what will be their long term use, their longevity.
Part 8.2: BOOKS, NEWSPAPERS, MAGAZINES, JOURNALS, INTER
In the more than 60 years during which reading has been a critical part of my
to 2013, books and newspapers, magazines and journals, the internet and a w
from too many sources to list here----meaning and pleasure were brought to m
these mediums. It is a meaning and pleasure to which I here give thanks and
acknowledgements to more resources and materials, more writers and author
essayists, novelists and scholars than I would want to list for fear of prolixity
boredom for readers of this now lengthy ‘thanks and acknowledgements’ sta
It is impossible for me to make an accurate record, or even a reasonable gues
of what might be called my reading record since 1949, that mid-century mark
my first year of kindergarten and the beginning of grade one. I have made a s

a record, such a rough guesstimation, though. And here it is:
A. Books Read(i.e. skimmed or scanned): 5,000
B. Books Read: entire…………………..........: 5,000
C. Books Partly Read : 20,000
______________________________Total : 30,000
D. Poems Read(i.e. skimmed or scanned) : 4,000
E. Poems Read: entire…………………............…: 3,000
F. Poems Partly Read : 6,000
___________________________Total : 13,000
G. Articles Read(i.e. skimmed or scanned) :50,000
H. Articles Read: entire…………………............:20,000
I. Articles Partly Read(1/4 or more) :100,000
___________________________Total : 170,000
J. Total number of items above…........………: 200,000(circa)
----FOR MORE SECTIONS BEYOND THIS LAST SECTION PART 8.2 G
NEXT POST--------
---------------------------------------
----THE NEXT POST IS THE 2ND ITEM IN THIS THREAD---------------
_________________
married for 44 years, a teacher for 35, a writer & editor for 12, and a Baha'i f
2011)
Last edited by RonPrice on Fri Jan 25, 2013 4:17 pm, edited 38 times in tota
Top
RonPrice
Post subject: Re: THANKS AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS(Part 2)
Posted: Thu Oct 25, 2012 1:58 pm
Joined: Mon
Jan 24, 2011
10:56 pm
Posts: 128
Location:
George Town
Part 8.3: SOUND AND MUSIC
The radio and many other sources of sound like: hi-fis and cassette tapes, tel
film, especially their musical content.
A.
All of the above have played an important part in my life unlike dance and p

Tasmania
Australia
Nationality:
Canadian
martial arts and sport---and of which have been, at best, peripheral and short-
experiences. In primary school from 1950 to 1957 music was a regular part o
curriculum. My mother and father both played the piano, sang in choirs, had
in our home, with our family, with friends and with the Baha’i community as
my late childhood in about 1953/4. We listened to classical music around the
my conception in October 1943 until my father died in 1965.
My mother and I then moved into different flats. I then moved to another tow
and then another, and then another country; in the process this family musica
experience ended and I began my life in a series of two affinal families each
musical experiences.
In the mid-to-late fifties I became interested in rock and roll, listened to it on
my bedroom among other places; in 1965 I bought my first LP: Barry McGu
Eve of Destruction. My mother gave me the family copy of The Messiah tha
and these two LPs launched my collection. I purchased LPs and 45s, as they
known, until 1975 by which time I had accumulated some 60 LPs and 45s. In
first marriage ended and with it, it seems in retrospect, my purchase of record
extensive listening to music in my home.
B:
Judy, my first wife, and I never had a TV and listening to records was an imp
of our shared experience: 1967-1973. In the following years I had to scale-ba
purchases of records due to having to raise three children and the increased c
records. My second wife and her two daughters were more interested in watc
engaging in sport and, for various reasons like the fracturing and diversity of
tastes and the birth of my only child, listening to records in my home serious
diminished by the mid-1970s.
I started to learn to play the guitar in 1968 after an unsuccessful attempt at cl
guitar in 1962/3. I taught music in my role as a primary teacher from 1967 to
1989 I taught guitar to a class of Aboriginal students at Thornlie Tafe. I led s
from 1968 to 1999 when I retired from the teaching profession. In 2000 I join
group of singers in George Town to entertain residents in an aged care facilit
Ainslie House in that same town, the oldest town in Australia(1804) and I co
singing with that group until May of 2005. In 2008 I began to play the guitar
those same residents in singalongs using my “sixties singalong music bookle
revised from earlier collections I had made as far back as the 1960s.
In 2000 I also had access to some 50 CDs as part of my role of Baha’i radio p
presenter on City Park Radio. By April 2005 I had presented about 150 half h
programs and this activity also came to an end that year. Such, in summary, i

history of my musical experience and I thank and acknowledge the many sou
meaning and pleasure which have delighted my life.
I have made a list of the pieces of music I have enjoyed most, and it can be f
computer directory, my two-ring binder sing-along file and on the internet. I
list of all the records I own in that same file. This particular music file has fo
sections divided into 4 sub-sections as follows: two popular music sections a
classical sections. They contain separate lists of articles about music, articles
save in 1984, but did not begin to save seriously until the year 2000. I opened
for these articles and resources in 2004 after twenty years of slowly accumul
material. It became a serious collection in the four years(2004-2008) in my e
write poetry with musical themes. In 2005 I divided the resources into: (a) cl
(b) popular and placed them in separate files. In 2006 I opened a jazz section
sub-section of the popular music file.
C:
I should mention, in closing this introduction, that radio and television have p
important part in my musical experience beginning as far back as 1944. This
place to summarize more than 60 years of radio and more than 35 years of te
their respective musical influences in detail. I should say, though, that in thes
dozen years of my retirement, 1999 to 2012, my musical experience comes in
from the Australian Radio National, the FM classical radio station. TV, at an
now of 1 hour/day and some pop-music from the local radio station are also p
musical fare.
Occasionally I used to get an LP bug and listen to classical music from my c
LPs, but in 2007 this ceased due to hi-fi technical problems. One of my aims
early years of my retirement is to integrate music, life's activities and my reli
beliefs in different ways in my poetry and in postings on the internet. The res
these files represent a base of information for this poetic-writing exercise wh
found to be immensely stimulating.
The exercise of listing one’s favorite music is no easy task after the passing o
seven decades. If a person is young, say in their childhood or adolescence the
as great. It may be better for such young people to wait for some years before
such a list, waiting until they survive the perils of: (a) their sporting interests
love life, (c) their job life, (d) their other leisure pursuits, (e) their desires and
wants and wishes as well as (e) the many slings and arrows of outrageous for
inevitably come into life.
In my lifetime there has come to be a world of sound in which I can drown, h
not-so-happily as the case may be. The lists I made of my favorite music con
of the happier sources, pieces, items, songs, inter alia that give me pleasure n

they did so at various times in my 69 years of life, 1943-2012.
D:
In the three year period June 2002 to May 2005, I compiled periodically a lis
favourite music. It was an attempt to define, to give expression to, to list wha
become by then a vast sea of pleasurable sounds produced in a number of ge
music. My first memories of listening to music were in about 1948, although
exposed to music right from the word go in 1943 by two parents who played
would post the full list here, but it is too long. I would post here "a short list"
70 years of musical experience, musical pieces I have enjoyed from a longer
music that gave me pleasure, but it is also too long to include.
This list is just a start to making a comprehensive outline, a brief survey, a di
so to speak. There are now over 1000 items in this full and comprehensive li
together in the years 2005 to 2011. If I continue to add to this list systematica
regularly the list will become completely unmanageable and necessitate far t
a focus on music in my otherwise highly interdisciplinary life. But the names
my favourites are found below for my interest and occasionally to post at a w
when others ask about my musical tastes. Since it seems impossible for me to
the names of many of the pieces, this list helps assist me in bringing to memo
names when and if required. The exercise is interesting to me in its own righ
any particular practical value.
As I began adding every item to this list from what I heard on ABC FM Radi
after 2002, and on the internet, it became obvious that, in the end, the list wo
too long if I took the exercise seriously with any sense, as I say, of making a
comprehensive collection. What is found here serves as: (a) a list of musical
own/have access to in my collection and (b) a list of additional material I wo
have access to in my study, but do not. As I say, this is a list of musical favou
will never bring to an end. The sea is just too full and I have listed only class
below. -Ron Price, Pioneering Over Four Epochs, Last Updated on: 19 Jun
E:
1.1 Bach: Symphony No.2 E-minor
1.2 Bach: Brandenburg Concerto No.1 in F; 12.2 No.6 in B flat Major; No3,
1.3 Bach: Goldberg Variations
1.4 Bach: Jesu Joy of Man's Desiring
1.5 Bach: see my 20 record collection of Bach--too many to list here
2.1 Beethoven: Sonata #8 opus 13 and Violin Concerto in D, Opus 61
2.2 Beethoven: Symphonies: set 1-9, especially no.#5
2.3 Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 23 in F minor, Opus 57(Appassionata)

2.4 Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 24 in F# major, Opus 78
2.5 Beethoven: Pathetique Sonata, Piano Sonata No.8 in C minor Op.13
2.6 Beethoven: Moonlight Sonata, Piano Sonata No.14 in C-sharp minor Op.
2.7 Beethoven: Piano Concerto #5(Emperor)
2.8 Beethoven: Fur Elise(Bagatelle No.25 in A minor, G.173
2.9 Beethoven: Leonora Overture No.3, Opus 72 and 72a
2.10 Beethoven: Waldstein Sonata, Piano Sonata No.21 in C major Op.53
2.11 Beethoven: Piano Trio #7 in B Flat Opus 97(The Archduke)
2.12 Beethoven: too many other pieces of Beethoven’s to list due to prolixity
3. Berlioz: Symphony Fantastique
4.1 Johannes Brahms, Symphony No.1 in C-Minor
4.2 Brahms, Piano Concerto # 1 in D Minor, Opus # 15
5.1 Frederick Chopin: Scherzo 1,2,3 and 4 ; 11.2 Ballads 1 to 4
5.2 Chopin: Fantasy Impromptu in C sharp minor, Opus 66
5.3 Chopin, 24 Preludes(C#minor,A-Flat-Major)
5.4 Chopin, Waltz No.7 in C Sharp minor, Opus 64/2
5.5 Chopin, Study No.3 in E major Opus 10 Tristesse
5.6 Chopin: Polonaise in A Flat, Op. 53 "Heroic"
5.7 Chopin: Nocturne No. 2 in E flat, Op. 9 No. 2
5.8 Chopin: Etude Op.10 No. 3 in E
5.9 Chopin: to list all of Chopin’s music that I enjoy would lead to prolixity
6.1 Claude Debussy: Claire de Lune from the Suite Bergamasque
6.2 Debussy: Preludes, “Girl With the Flaxen Hair” among other preludes
7.1 Anton Dvorak: New World Symphony
7.2 Dvorak: Symphony #3
7.3 Dvorak: Cello Concerto in B Minor, op.104
7.4 Dvorak: Symphonic Variations, Opus 78
8. Edvard Grieg, Peer Gynt, Suite No.1
9. Frederick Handel, Water Music Suite
10. Gabriel Faure, The Pavane in F-sharp minor, opus 50
11. Franz Joseph Hayden: Concerto in D. Major
12. Franz Liszt: Concerto No.1 in E Flat Major
12.1 Liszt: Liebestraum No. 3 in A-flat, S 541 / III.
12.2 Liszt: Consolation, for piano No. 3 in D-flat Major
12.3 Liszt: La Campanella
12.4 Liszt: Hungarian Rhapsody #2 in C-Sharp Minor
13. Henryk Mikołaj Górecki (pronounced Goretsky), Symphony #3.
14. Jules Massinet: Meditations
15. Felix Mendelssohn, Symphony #4 in A(Italian), Opus 90
16.1 Amadeus Mozart: Sonatas for Piano
16.2 Mozart: Divertimenti for strings, Adagio & Fugue in C Minor
16.3 Mozart: Piano Concerto #20 in D minor, K466
16.4 Mozart: Piano Concertos: other

16.5 Mozart: Symphony #40 in C minor
16.6 Mozart: too many other pieces of Mozart to list due to prolixity
17. Giacomo Puccini:One Fine Day, Madame Butterfly
18. Nicoli Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade
19.1 Sergei Rachmaninoff: Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini
19.2 Rachmaninoff: Prelude in G Minor, Opus 23, No.5
19.3 Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No.2 D Minor
19.4 Rachmaninoff: Prelude in C sharp Minor Op.3 No.2
19.5 Rachmaninoff: too many other pieces of Rachmaninov to list due to pro
20.1 Joaquin Rodrigo: Ecos de Sefarad-guitar
20.2 Joaquin Rodrigo: need to familiarize myself with his repertoir
21. Erik Satie: Gymnopedie No.1
22.1 Franz Schubert: Fantasie in F. Minor, D 940
22.2 Schubert: Ave Maria, Symphony #8 in B-minor
22.3 Schubert: Octet Quintet in F major(For 2 violins, viola, cello, double ba
horn and bassoon)
22.4 Schubert: Impromptu No.3 in G flat major D.899/Op.90
22.5 Schubert: Impromptu No.7 in E flat major opus 6
22.6 Schubert: Impromptu No.7 in E-flat major opus 90 no.2
22.7 Schubert: String Quartet #14: Death of a Maiden, D 810
22.8 Schubert: String Quintet in C.
22.9 Schubert: Piano Trios in E Flat Major, D 929 and 897
22.10 Schubert: Piano Quintet In A major: 'Trout' D667
22.11 Schubert: Impromptu in A Flat Major. Op. 90, No. 4
23.1 Robert Schumann: Concerto in A-Minor
23.2 Schumann: Symphonies 1-4
23.3 Schumann: Etudes
23.4 Schumann: Romance Violin
23.5 Schumann: Fairy Tales for Viola and Piano
23.6 Schumann: violin concerto op 134 d minor
23.7 Schumann: Mondnacht
23.8 Schumann: Traumerie
24.1 Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: Symphony No.6 in B Minor
24.2 Tchaikovsky: Violin Concerto D Major
24.3 Tchaikovsky: Piano Trio in A Minor, Opus 50
25. Antonio Vivaldi: Violin Concerti #3; trumpet concerti for 4 violins
F:
There were over 50 CDs in the Launceston Baha’i community files by 2005.
them for several years as “presenter of programs” on City Park Radio. I have
these in my personal collection. I have listed elsewhere these 50 CDs. These
had many individual songs that I came to enjoy and could list them as favour

thanks to those who created the music and acknowledge the pleasure they ha
me.
After having music in my life for nearly 70 years(1943-2012) and after colle
records for 40 years(1965-2005), the time finally arrived to index the collecti
acquired. By 2005 music in the form of CDs, at least for me, were replacing
source of new recorded music. A separate collection of some 15 CDs is now
chest of drawers near the radio in the dining room. Cassette tapes had begun
source of music already by the 1960s and I now have some 30 cassette tapes
that same place in the dining-room.
This index does not include these CDs and the cassette tapes or, indeed, the 3
acquired when I was a presenter of programs at City Park Radio from 2001-2
future time I hope to index the CDs and the cassette tapes. Much of the mate
CDs, the cassette tapes and the mini-discs is not music, but other types of rec
resources: talks, radio programs, et cetera. There are three sections for the rec
collection found in my study: (A) popular, (B) classical and (C) 45s.
Part 8.4:SERVICES
To the organizations, institutions, and providers of services
Since this list is just about endless: car salesmen and car repairmen, dog catc
dentists, fashion designers and florists, newsagents and nurses, psychologists
psychiatrists, inter alter--I will focus on one which, over my lifetime, has bee
invaluable: doctors and specialist doctors like psychiatrists. I have written an
appreciation of them and readers can google Ron Price bipolar disorder for a
word statement of the details.
Part 9.1: EDITORS AND COMENTATORS
To the editors of my writing and the many who have commented on my writin
Preamble:
I have had many teachers and tutors, lecturers and professors, people who ha
advice about, and criticism of, my writing from the 1950s to the 21st century
Conow and Bill Washington both editors; Roger White and Douglas Martin
writers---have offered me advice, a great deal in the case of Bill and just a lit
case of Douglas. An editor, it has been said, is someone who knows more ab
than writers, but they have escaped the terrible desire to write.
Since publishing in cyberspace from, say, 2004 to 2012, I have received a gr

advice from many of those who have escaped such a desire. I have written th
brief essay to place all this advice and editing, criticism and commentary in a
context. It is a context of thanks and acknowledgements.
The first criticism of my writing, at least the criticism that I remember, was i
when I was in grade one in the then small town of Burlington Ontario. Burlin
nestled at the heel of what was then and is still called southern Ontario’s Gol
Horseshoe. The town is and was jammed right at the left-hand end of Lake O
sure I received criticism of my scribbling in the three years before that in my
childhood from my family members and playmates, perhaps as early as 1947
three or four years old and colouring or printing my first words on paper.
I have no memories of that incoming criticism, no memories until, as I say, 1
was more than 60 years ago: 1950 to 2012. I do have memories of criticism o
behaviour as early as the age of four in 1948 when my father applied a wood
brush to my bare bottom as he was asked to do by my mother for some misde
behavioural indiscretion the details of which are now long forgotten.
When one is a student, as I was from 1949 to 1970 in Canada, and in Austral
1974 to 1988, receiving criticism of what one writes is part of the core of the
process. Sometimes that criticism is fair and helpful; sometimes it is unkind
destructive. It is not my intention here to provide a detailed outline of those s
decades of criticism of my writing. In general, though, the comments on my
covered the complete range: praise of my writing that saw it as the best of th
criticism indicating I was among the worst of the worst.
Part 9.2 THE TRANSITION TO WRITING ON THE INTERNET
Early in this new, this third, millennium, in 2004 to be precise, I began to rec
criticism of my prose and poetry on the internet. I had received criticism, ver
written, of my unpublished writing from 1950 to 1974, and of my published
from 1974 to 2004 during which time I was able to publish some 150 essays
newspapers and magazines, newsletters and in-house publications where I w
several towns and cities in Australia.
Writing had become, by the 1970s, a more central focus to my life, much mo
than it had ever been, although it had always been central in one way or anot
as I say above, since 1950. Being on the receiving end of criticism in cybersp
been, in some ways, just a continuation of the first half-century, say grade 4
2004, of comments by teachers and students, by supervisors and the general
what I had written. Some readers have been so impressed with my writing th
asked for more, poured praise and expressed their enthusiasm.

9.3 INTERNET CRITICISM
9.3.1 The Bullies:
The internet, though, is full of lumpen bully-boys who prowl the blogosphere
the bully-boys, and girls--for bullying is not confined to the male gender—do
work at one site and they have literally thousands of posts at that site. If they
someone’s ego getting out of hand, or if they judge some new site participan
fitting into the site conventions in some way or other, they make it their job t
down to size thus intimidating many a potential site writer and poster. So be
writers at internet sites need to be conscious of site conventions and, initially
not post items that challenge what you might call the site’s orthodoxy.
Such internet bullies remind me of some of the teachers I have worked with i
years in classrooms. Such teachers saw their role as pushing and pulling all t
students into line by the exercise of their authority. On the site boards, as inte
are often called, where site activists live and have their being, the authority o
administrators and moderators is exercised like a heavy club, an iron fist. Th
task as one of ensuring the maintenance of site rules and routines, convention
styles. “Newbies,” as new members are often called, must fall in or ship out.
orthodoxy’ which prevails is important for a new poster to become familiar w
become familiar fast if he does not want his emotions trashed, stepped on wi
knowledge of what some call awareness of emotional intelligence and etique
expression.
9.3.2 The Fundamentalists:
There are a wide range of hysterical secularists, what I have come to call the
fundamentalists, who proliferate among the immense commentariat that is th
They are not unlike many of the so-called Bible-bashers that fill out global so
the millions. There are also the dogmatic Islamists and Christian fundamenta
others who want to impose their absolutes on others. They try to inflict, or pe
promote, their interpretation of the Quran or the Bible on the rest of the Musl
Christian communities, respectively.
9.3.3 CRITICISM AND PRAISE: WHAT WRITERS NEED
My experience on the internet in the last decade, 2004 to 2012, is, just a cont
those decades of criticism and, of course, praise that I had already received. “
as the famous American novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald said so succinctly over d
film entitled Last Call, “must get used to criticism.” After decades of extensi
in many places in the public domain, I must agree with this entre deux guerre
criticism is part of the air that writers breath and, especially is this true on the

for writers like myself who have lots of readers. I do not ask for criticism, ex
few writers’ and poets’ sites whose purposes, among others, is to provide con
useful, criticism.
I do not ask for praise. There’s nothing wrong with praise itself and, when it
feel encouraged. But lip-service and flattery are cheap substitutes for praise w
praise is deserved. People who are addicted to praise will take what they can
it up with enthusiasm. The want of praise is a complex psychological, and an
different, matter. If one falls into the trap of constantly seeking approval, val
recognition from other people as the primary way to determine one’s self-val
loses the ability to generate one’s own self-value. After years of getting plen
from my parents and teachers and then my students, friends and colleagues, I
continue to rely on other people to buoy my self-esteem.
Since I also received my fair share of criticism in the first 50 years of my wri
am aware of my limitations as well as my talents and capacities. I am also aw
personal, sustained and intelligent effort is essential to back-up any already a
natural abilities, what one writer calls unmerited grace. The process of skill-a
at least in the area of writing, and at least as I have experienced it in more tha
century, is gradual, a daily exercise, not a constant nor linear but exponential
until a saturation point is reached. No one faculty produces results and know
and will are what you might call the three pre-requisites to produce results.(2
The reliance on external praise can grow to the point that whenever someone
you, even in the smallest way, you feel a rush of elation, the feeling that “som
there values my existence.” As the famous psychiatrist Viktor Frankl once sa
“Success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue.”3 This applies, a
writing. Some writers only want praise but, after living Downunder for more
years, I have come to expect and even enjoy a little criticism. Criticism is par
one breaths here in Australia.
9.3.4 LITERARY TYRANTS
Literary tyrants, people who are going to tell you where and when, why and
have gone wrong in no uncertain terms, without mincing their words or pulli
punches, without what you might call an etiquette of expression and tact, hav
come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. One must learn to deal with them in on
another as their criticisms come your way in the daily round. There are many
modus operandi, to use a term from the who-dun-its, for dealing with the har
so harsh words of others. Of course, it is not only writers who have to deal w
tongues and words in many forms. A vast literature now abounds on how to
this reality of life. Courses are mounted in educational and other service insti
help people deal with this pervasive reality of everyday life in the micro and
worlds which we all inhabit.

9.3.5 THIS 6000 WORD ESSAY: A PAUSE TO REFLECT
I discuss below in this 6000 word essay, the reactions to criticism of two fam
one from the 19th and one from the 20th century. Their reactions throw light
own way of dealing with this inevitable reality of existence if one is as I am,
author, an editor and publisher, a poet and a journalist, a researcher and indep
sometimes not-so-independent scholar, a man of words, a writer of belles-let
person with belletrist concerns. For many writers the term belles-lettres is us
sense to identify literary works that do not fall easily into the major literary c
such as: fiction, poetry, drama, short story, inter alia, but have—at least in so
more aesthetic function or purpose. Much of my writing has become in the la
years, 1981 to 2011, since the very helpful treatment of lithium for my bi-po
a hybrid that does not easily and comfortably fit into the major categories of
And so it is that, after more than sixty years, 1949 to 2012, of having to deal
phenomenon of critical feedback of my written work, I pause here to reflect o
incoming criticism of what I have written over those years, on what I now wr
what I hope to write. I pause and reflect on the experience of two other write
writers who lived in the last two centuries, writers of fame and much success
the popular press or populist literary idioms. at least in some quarters---if not
popular and
9.3.6 The Example of Laura Riding
In 1936, right at the start of the Baha’i teaching Plan, a Plan in which I have
engaged in a host of ways for nearly sixty years, 1953 to 2011, the American
Riding(1901-1991) wrote to a correspondent: "I believe that misconceptions
oneself which one does not correct, but where it is possible to correct, act as
magic.” That bad magic has been at work on the reputation of Laura Riding f
years, for well over 70 years.
One of the criticisms leveled at Riding in her later life, or more accurately, si
comment about Riding--and repeated recently by the renowned literary critic
Vendler--was that Riding "spent a great deal of time writing tenacious and ex
letters to anyone who, in her view, had misrepresented some aspect, no matte
minute, of her life or writing."4 Vendler, a leading American critic of poetry
Riding "more than a little monomaniacal,” in relation to criticism of her work
Despite advanced age and failing health, Riding continued her vigorous and
might even say, fanatical attempt to halt the spread of misconceptions about
her writing to the very end of her life. But the "bad magic" was too powerful
overcome. Incidentally, this view of criticism that Riding held, the view that

magic," was held by a woman who was also accused of being a witch and of
literary witchcraft by some of her more zealous critics.
Why was Riding so scrupulous in her attempts to correct misconceptions of h
writing no matter how minute? It was, partly at least, because she recognized
importance of details to the understanding of human character. "The details o
nature are never a matter of infinitesimals," she wrote in an essay published i
"Every last component of the human course of things is a true fraction of the
world, reflecting a little its general character." She, like many other writers a
writers it should be added, never welcome criticism. Some react to the slight
like a cornered wildcat and others like a barking dog.
Writing, it seems to me, is something like biography which, as Freud notes in
general remarks on the subject found in Volume XXI(1927-1931) of The Sta
Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud(Hogarth Pr
London, 1961, p.211) “does not throw any light on the riddle of the miraculo
makes an artist.” Still, it seems to me, that biography and writing, paradoxica
throw some light on the man, and I comment on this reality of life in this sho
My approach to incoming criticism is more diverse than Riding’s, not as con
intense and defensive, not as sensitive to infinitesimals, not like that wildcat
barking dog. Sometimes I ignore the comment; sometimes I am tenacious an
extensive response; sometimes I write something brief and to the point. Som
deal with the comment with some attempt at humour, sarcasm and wit, if I ca
these clever sorts of written repartee in my intellectual and sensory emporium
Part 10: INTERNET LANGUAGE
Punitive rebuttals abound on the internet, often laced with the F, the C, or the
invectives from the younger generations who have grown up with these word
A much larger vocabulary of blasphemy and blame can now be found in the
electronic media, more than in any previous generation at least in modern his
Sometimes taking umbrage at the use of these forms of vilification and vitup
cyberspace is appropriate and sometimes it is not. I certainly agree with Ridi
one’s writing should not be judged by some infinitesimals, but it is difficult w
writes extensively in the public domain, in or out of cyberspace, not to be jud
sorts of things of which infinitesimals are but one of the many. The only way
criticism and to be totally safe is not to stick one’s head above the ground of
cyberspace’s highly varied terrain: just don’t write anything or, even better, s
reading books, watching TV and enjoying other forms of the print and electr
10.1 Marking Papers

Riding, of course, did not have to deal with the world-wide-web. Hers was a
refined and elitist, academic and journalistic, literary and scholarly world. He
world I inhabited for many a year as both a student and teacher, as a lecturer
wrote more essays than I care now to count and I marked so many that, by th
took an early retirement at the age of 55, I can honestly say that I suffered fro
came to call print-glut. When one has to read more than 200 pages of student
week and do this for years, mark it for spelling and grammar errors, for conte
quality, one needs an energy and enthusiasm which tends, for most teachers,
worn-down at the edges. And this is to put the problem mildly. I found I was
ill with mental fatigue when I faced a large pile of papers or scripts as they a
called and which required marking by the time I came to take an early retirem
By the time I came to pull-the-plug and take a sea-change as it is called Dow
the Antipodes my role as critic of the writing of students had lost all its oils a
was ready to be farmed-out, ready to go out to pasture, where marking was to
more. My feedback to students and writers on the internet is nowhere near as
now as it once was for me as a teacher. I am enjoying my sea-change, my be
pasture, so to speak.
10.2 Feedback From Others On the Internet
After eight years, from 2004 to 2012, of receiving, keeping and filing some o
written and critical feedback sent to me by readers on the internet, I must con
thusfar, the negative feedback I have received has been useful in adjusting th
my posts. The criticism I have received at a multitude of sites at which I post
adjust my contributions to suit the administrators and moderators, the partici
interlocutors who fill the cyberspace places at these world-wide-web location
is, in some ways, like a game-board, with its rules and routines, its conventio
codes. It took me at least a decade to fully grasp this reality. Even then, site
administrators and moderators are not always tactful in dealing with what the
your insensitivity to their site’s modus vivendi, way of doing things.
Most of the feedback I have received in these seven years that has been view
negative light tends to see my posts as: too long-winded, not relevant or appr
They raise the hackles of some readers because they were seen as boring or,
of many a pejorative adjective. I thought this personal statement here, this br
overview, analysis and comment, would be a useful summary of both the inc
criticism I have received in the last seven years and my views on that criticis
negative feedback was in the 10% range and 90% of my literary contribution
as they are usually called in cyberspace, have received various forms of appr
Some people on the internet let you know, as I have already indicated above,
uncertain terms, what they think of your posts. Frankness, candour, invective

criticism, indeed, criticism in virtually every conceivable form, can be found
interstices of cyberspace, if one writes as much as I do at more than 8000 loc
among the 260 million sites and 4.6 billion subjects, topics or items of inform
last count, that are now in existence in that world of cyberspace. In the last se
have been on the receiving end of everything imaginable that someone can sa
negatively about someone’s writing and someone.
This negative feedback has been, as I say, useful and I have tried to respond
improve readers’ opinions of my work and, sometimes, of me. Sometimes I a
successful in these efforts of explanation and of self-justification, of defence
argument, of apologetics and apology, and sometimes I am not. Such are the
extensive writing and human interaction; indeed, such are the perils of living
is a hermit and does one’s own plumbing and electrical work, never goes sho
relies only on the products of one’s garden for food. Internet interaction, like
everywhere else in life, is a learning experience. The faster one learns the be
you don’t learn, you get hit again and again with the same criticism. Regret a
in writing and in living, can be and are useful means of learning from experie
of course, can praise and popularity.
10.3 Isaiah Berlin and Ivan Tergenev
To draw now on a second writer and how he dealt with criticism, I introduce
Berlin(1909-1997). He was a leading political philosopher and historian of id
his death as the 2nd millennium was about to turn the corner to the 3rd. In a l
Berlin gave in 1970 on the Russian poet Ivan Turgenev, Berlin pointed out th
famous Russian writer altered, modified and tried to please everyone in some
works. As a result of this desire to please his critics, one of the characters in
“suffered several transformations in successive drafts, up and down the mora
this or that friend or consultant reported their impressions.”
Berlin went on to say, in that same lecture, that Turgenev was inflicted by in
wounds as a result of the criticism of his works by others, wounds that fester
varying degrees of intensity, depending of course on the nature of the criticis
rest of Turgenev’s life. Turgenev was attacked by writers and critics of many
persuasions on the Left and the Right of the political spectrum in those days
political demarcations had more clear and understandable characterizations.
This Russian novelist(1818-1883) possessed, Berlin noted, a capacity for dep
multiplicity of interpenetrating human perspectives that shade imperceptibly
other, nuances of character and behaviour, motives and attitudes.”5 Turgenev
Riding, could never bear the wounds he received from incoming criticism of
in silence. He shook and shivered under the ceaseless criticisms to which he
himself, so Berlin informs us.

Pleasing others, of course, is important for any writer if he or she is to win a
success among teachers and tutors, supervisors and those in the general publi
just as true on the world-wide-web. But there is also, and without doubt for m
internet participants, a new found freedom of expression that cyberspace pro
of this freedom, at least for me, is due to the advantages and pleasures of age
the early evening of my life, these middle years(65 to 75) of late adulthood a
human development theorists refer to the period in the lifespan from 60 to 80
and employment positions far behind me, no one checks what I write before
offerings go into the bright lights and pixelated pages of cyberspace.
My own editing pen is kept busy, of course, and I can edit as much or as littl
Editing has never been one of my favorite activities and I tend to rush this pa
writing job, at least initially. I then revise or alter, subtract or add, delete and
edit in a multitude of ways as a result of incoming comments, both the encom
the opprobrium. Sometimes I make no changes at all to my initial internet po
decade of writing in cyberspace and on the several editions of my website, th
doubt that I do more editing of my work than ever before. This may be for m
reasons: age, freedom from employment, more leisure-time—I could add sev
reasons.
After my writing gets onto the world-wide-web: it is ignored, criticized, diag
interpreted, subjected to hair-splittings and logic-choppings by readers and p
moderators and administrators who inhabit the plethora of internet sites. I am
receiving end of invective and ignominy, negative appraisals and accusations
nefariousness. I am assailed with acrimony, berating and blame, blasphemy a
bickering, castigation and censure, condemnation and contumely, denunciati
diatribe, epithet and obloquy, philippic and reproach, revilement and sarcasm
and tirade, tongue-lashing and vilification. I am given more advice than I hav
at home from those I love and who love me as well as my students and friend
lifetime of seven decades.
The main advantage that all of this incoming and negative feedback is that it
alter what I write at a site which takes me on and criticizes virtually everythi
contribute and has no word of praise for what I write. Such a negative reactio
to adjust: (a) my future entry processes sites and (b) how I continue the natur
participation at that site. Writing on the internet is a learning process as writi
other form of the print and electronic media.
The criticism I received as a student and teacher in the last half of the twentie
goes on in pithy paragraphs and sentences, phrases and single words at the se
thousand internet sites where my millions of words are now published---to ch
seems to me to be an apt word for the nature and extent of my internet contri

places that my words occupy, in the many coloured and black-and-white pixe
pages, the public spaces in cyberspace.
I am viewed---to continue to summarize the incoming criticism I receive---as
and insensitive, awfully boring and told where to get off, where to go, where
further writing courses to help me in my literary vocation and avocation. Som
am told why I should discontinue the practice of writing entirely. I am also to
wonderful inspiration my writing is. Compliments and acclaim, flattery and p
abound. These words of encomium and opprobrium that I receive, as I say, a
much different than; indeed, are much the same as, the words many other wr
when their words are found between hard and soft covers.
I am not alone in receiving criticism. Even the writings of Shakespeare, the B
other major works in the western literary canon get great buckets of criticism
them from the generations which have come on the scene since the post-worl
years, from those now 65 and over, and 65 and under, to select two convenie
timeframes covering as it does everyone. Most of those who offer me their cr
my literary efforts and my opinions, my responses to what others write and th
inevitable and myriad contentious issues that abound in cyberspace, most of
from the “Y” and the “Z” generations, those born from the mid-1970s onwar
The “Y” generation was born between the mid-1970s to the first years of the
These generation-Y people are today's teens, 20s and 30s, the millennial gen
net generation. Some say that generation-X are those born between 1974 and
fine-tuning of these generational labels gets a bit complex. The first generatio
have grown-up with internet access, the years 1990 to 2010, have a wide ran
personality constructs. These people are sometimes called the Z-generation a
require a separate statement to discuss in sufficient detail their internet, their
typologies.
There are, though, some generalities about the generations I deal with which
in an analysis and description. These generalities may help a person deal wit
individuals one comes across at internet sites as I do, but my comments on th
be detailed here. I could benefit, as I go along here, from the assistance of on
Cowley, affectionately known in publishing circles back in the seventies and
eighties as “the Boston slasher.” There is little doubt that I might benefit from
taking a work like my 5 volume memoire which is about twelve times the len
average novel or twice the length of War and Peace. I have not be blessed or
some writers are, by total recall.
His editing was regarded in some circles as constructive and deeply sensitive
amputate several dozen pages, several thousand words, of my explorations o
with minimal agony to my emotional equipment I’m sure readers would be th

beneficiaries. The experience of editing some of my work it seems to me is n
that of a man attempting to hang on to the fin of a plunging whale. Unlike th
Thomas Wolfe, though, I would not find the cutting painful. I would not, as W
take my book away from such an editor. Neither would I, like Ernest Hemmi
with my editor with any bullying arrogance or pathetic insecurity. I would no
shattered by whatever criticism or aggressive editing came my way, nor wou
touchier than someone with a fresh burn.
But, alas, I think that fine editor Bob Cowley is dead. I did find two editors, o
proof-reader and friend who does not slash and burn but leaves one's soul qu
he wades through my labyrinthine passages, smooths them all out and excise
undesirable elements. But this editor is in the late evening of his life and, afte
several hundred pages of my writing, he has tired of the exercise, prefers gar
his own writing, and so I am left on my own. The other editor I found was a
soul on the internet who worked free-of-charge for me for over a year. But o
obligations eventually took him away.
Perhaps one day I may assume the role that Cowley exercised so well in his l
Boston as The Slasher, but I think it unlikely. Several people have already as
edit their work and I have declined. I think all the reading, the marking and e
those 200 pages of student work per week brought my role as editor of the w
others to an end. In the meantime and without the services of professional ed
advise readers not to hold their breath waiting for me to do what is a necessa
often edit the writing of others when it is only a page or two, but it is not an e
enjoy after having edited student work for more than three decades and my o
for more than five.
10.4 The Process of Baha’i Review and Review By Others
After more than sixty years(1949-2012), then, of having my writing poured o
others; after nearly fifty years(1964-2012) of having my writing reviewed be
publication by Baha’i reviewing committees and institutions at national and r
well as local levels of Baha’i administration and even by some individuals an
the Bahá'í World Centre in Haifa Israel; after trying to write in a way that wo
various groups of people both within the Baha’i community and without by c
and colleagues, professors and tutors, students and teachers at a multitude of
institutions---before my writing saw the light of day in some in-house public
public newsletter, some magazine or journal, some newspaper or periodical,
to especially enjoy writing on the internet.
The National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Australia Inc., the nationa
body by the Bahá'í community in Australia does not require writers like mys
their writing reviewed before it goes onto the internet. The Review Office of

the Baha’is of the USA has given me permission to post my works on the int
although they have advised that review is necessary if I want to place any of
in book form, in a hard or soft cover, for general and public consumption. M
volume, 2600 page autobiography, has found many a place in whole or in pa
world-wide-web. That same Review Office has reviewed this work, given m
permission to place it on the internet but not between the covers of a book. T
much more I could add about the process of Baha’i review, but this short com
the Baha’i review process which is still in place is sufficient to include in thi
of the process of dealing with criticism.
Part 10.5 Dealing With Criticism: An Answering Theology
Critical scholarly comments on my work as well as criticism raised in public
discussions of less scholarly material, should not necessarily be equated with
Questions and judgments, evaluations and critiques, are perfectly legitimate,
necessary aspects of a person's search for an answer to an intellectual conund
Tillich, that great Protestant theologian of the 20th century, once expressed t
dealing with criticism, a process sometimes called apologetics, was an "answ
theology.”6 I have always been attracted to the founder of the Baha'i Faith's
in discussion to "speak with words as mild as milk," with "the utmost lenienc
forbearance."7 This form of dialogue, its obvious etiquette of expression and
exercise of judgment involved, is difficult for most people when their positio
attack from people who are more articulate, better read and better at arguing
own position and the position of those with whom they are in dialogue in som
exchange at some thread at a site on the internet.
I am also aware that, in cases of rude or hostile attack, rebuttal with a harshe
punitive rebuttal, may well be justified, although I prefer humour, irony and
sarcasm rather than hostile written attack in any form. Still, it does not help a
to belong to those "watchmen" whom the prophet Isaiah calls "dumb dogs th
bark."8 In its essence criticism is often just another form of confrontation, an
revealing one's true colours, of hoisting the flag, of demonstrating the essenti
characteristics of one's faith, of one's thought, of one's emotional and intellec
in life. “Dialogue should not mean self-denial,” wrote Hans Kung, arguably t
of contemporary Catholic apologists.9
The standard of public discussion on controversial topics should be sensitive
said and how; it should be sensitive to manner, mode, style, tone and volume
also essential. Not everything that we know should always be disclosed; not
that can be disclosed is timely or suited to the ears of the hearer to paraphras
one of the Founder of the Baha’i Faith’s more quoted passages.
To put some of this question of tact, and this topic of personal revelations an

we don't want all our dirty laundry out on our front lawn for all to see or our
blasted over the radio and TV. Perhaps a moderate confessionalism is best he
confession is required at all. In today’s print and electronic media it seems un
even if only modestly. Much of internet dialogue, though, is far, far, below s
even a reasonable modesty or literacy as posters “f,” “c” and “s” words abou
making their way through discussions.
Often the briefest of phraseology, a succinctness that approaches sheer nothi
an inarticulateness that has more in common with grunts and sighs as well as
and whims is found at internet sites. So often the language betrays a knowled
deriving from the visual media and little reading. The eye, as one writer put i
what I thought was a clever turn of phrase, is so often quicker than the mind.
and no, I hasten to add on the complex subject of the print and electronic me
Perception and understanding based on the use of the print and electronic me
another too complex a subject to deal with here in even the briefest of ways.
Anyway, that's all for now. It's back to the spring winds of Tasmania, about 5
the Bass Straight on the Tamar River. The geography of place is so much sim
that of the literary, intellectual, philosophical and religious geography that so
on the internet who engage in complex and not-so-complex discussions are c
with. Even physical geography, though, has its complexities as those who tak
interest in the topic of climate change and the worlds of biodiversity and rela
are fast finding out. Whom the gods would destroy they first make simple an
and simpler. I look forward to a dialogue with someone, anyone who is inclin
respond to what I’m sure for some is this overly long post. Here in far-off Ta
last stop before Antarctica, if one wants to get there by some other route than
off the end of South America--your response will be gratefully received.-Ron
George Town, Tasmania, Australia.
----------------------FOOTNOTES--------------------------------------
The interwar years: 1919 to 1939
2 For some of the ideas here I am indebted to William S. Hatcher, “The Conc
Spirituality,” Baha’i Studies, Vol. 11, 1982.
3 This quotation like many that I and others use can easily be found by the si
process of googling.
4 See Elizabeth Friedman’s response to: The White Goddess! from the Nove
1993 issue of The New York Review of Books and Helen Vendler, “Laura (
Jackson,” February 3, 1994.
5 Isaiah Berlin, (1) “Romanes Lecture 1970 on Turgenev: Fathers and Sons.;
“The Gentle Genius: Turgenev’s Letters selected, translated, and edited by A
Knowles, Scribner’s and Sons in The New York Review of Books, 2010.
6 Paul Tillich, Systematic Theology, U. of Chicago, 1967, Vol.1, p. 6.
7 Baha’u’llah, Tablets of Baha'u'llah, Haifa, 1978, pp. 172-173.
8 The Bible, Isaiah, 56:10.

9 Quoted in Udo Schaefer’s, "Baha'i Apologetics," Baha'i Studies Review,
2001/2.
---I HAVE MUCH MORE TO ADD AND, AND WILL IN PART 3 BELOW
_________________
married for 44 years, a teacher for 35, a writer & editor for 12, and a Baha'i f
2011)
Last edited by RonPrice on Mon Dec 24, 2012 10:29 am, edited 4 times in to
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RonPrice
Post subject: Re: THANKS AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS(Part 3)
Posted: Thu Oct 25, 2012 2:29 pm
Joined: Mon
Jan 24, 2011
10:56 pm
Posts: 128
Location:
George Town
Tasmania
Australia
Nationality:
Canadian
Thanks and acknowledgements to the many places of my employment in
1957-2007
Part 1:
The statement which follows in this section of thanks and acknowledgements
(i) 50 years of job-hunting and job acquisition, (ii) my transition from emplo
the job-hunting process to retirement from FT, PT and most casual-volunteer
years 1999 to 2009, and (iii) the reinvention of myself as a writer and author
researcher, poet and publisher, online journalist and blogger as the second de
21st century opened.
Hunting for jobs and being jobbed took place from 1957 to 2007, and by the
was enjoying two old-age pensions, one from Canada for my work their from
1971, and one from Australia. The transition from the job world to retiremen
pursuit of a leisure life devoted to writing took place, for the most part, in the
to 2005.
During those six years I also gave up PT work and most casual-volunteer wo
for volunteer work associated with the Baha’i community and many online o
in the areas of: mental health, human relations, the humanities and social scie
among other disciplines. This statement below will serve as my acknowledge
those organizations, institutions, and employing authorities that, in so many w
an immense impact on my life over half a century. They each and all deserve
my statement of thanks and acknowledgements.
The information and details in my resume, a resume I no longer need, or use

direct sense, in the job-hunting world after fifty years of use, but which I occ
post on the internet for a range of purposes, should help anyone wanting to k
something about my personal and professional background, my writing and m
This resume contains information about many organizations and groups, inst
employing authorities to which I also give thanks as I acknowledge the role t
played in shaping the direction of my life-narrative. This resume is useful no
contexts, but not to assess my suitability for some advertised or unadvertised
employment position.
This resume could be useful for some readers in cyberspace to assess the rele
some statements I make on the internet, statements on a wide variety of topic
variety of internet sites. If I feel there is a need for readers to have some idea
background, my credentials and my experience; if I feel that it would be usef
to have a personal, a historical, a memoiristic, context for my remarks at an i
I post this resume. I do so here in this wider statement of thanks and acknow
See Appendix 1 for my CV.
Part 2:
This post, this essay, for it is a sort of essay or article, is a statement, an over
job application life. This overview may be of value to those who have to run
gauntlet in the job-hunting world, and it is a gauntlet for millions of people. L
no mistake about that. My intention is to be of encouragement; to help those
this statement become more persistent, more optimistic about their own posit
position which is often a bleak one, in a bleak house---especially if those rea
currently unemployed and running that gauntlet.
I never apply for jobs anymore, although I have registered at several internet
role is, among other things, to help people get jobs. Perhaps this act of regist
such sites on the world-wide-web is an act in which I engage out of some sen
nostalgia, out of habit, out of an inability to stop applying for jobs after five d
persistent and strenuous efforts in that direction. These decades of efforts we
obtaining jobs, better jobs, jobs more suited to my talents, jobs that paid bette
freed me from impossible situations which I had become involved with, som
scene in which I was ensconced--along the road of life.
I stopped applying for full-time jobs in September 2007 and part-time ones in
2003. I also disengaged myself from most volunteer or casual work by 2005
could occupy myself as: an independent scholar and researcher, a writer and
poet and a publisher, an online journalist and blogger, indeed, what some mi
man of leisure in the Greek tradition and which I describe in more detail else

A Lifetime of Thanks & Acknowledgements

A Lifetime of Thanks & Acknowledgements

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A Lifetime of Thanks & Acknowledgements