© 1985 Maureen Cragg
© 1985 The Urantia Book Fellowship (formerly Urantia Brotherhood)
While it is not the practice of The JOURNAL to print letters, the article which follows is written in that form to convey its meaning in a personally powerful way. Thanks from all of us for a very important reminder. The Editors.
Dear Brother:
It’s always good to hear from you. I like to know what’s going on at home and at the office.
But is life not more than comings and goings and resolutions and documents? Tell me, how is your sister in California? Is she being healed from her distress?
You know I’m always interested in your theological studies — it is an interest which you and I share. But you did not tell me how reading that last book affected you for good, or to what application it might be useful. Please understand me, brother, I don’t think that I’m stupid. It’s just that I don’t always have time to dig through a monument I treatise before I know what it’s FOR.
The family in this area is struggling as usual-each one individually to get by. In fact, cousin Harvey is still not speaking to Cousin Irving. Tell me, brother, in your communications with our other cousins and brothers, have any shared with you a similar problem-lack of leadership or even lack of relationship — that you might be able to apply to our situation here? Our Creator Son patiently supported all kinds of persons through many kinds of troubles. If there were just some way we could do that for each other more, in spite of our differing locations, we could truly lighten each other’s loads.
Remember how Uncle Clyde said:
Why have I not seen more clearly that as You have translated the symphonies of Paradise itself for us in our Great Book — we cannot hold them to echo forever in our memories unless we orchestrate them in our personal way into brotherly daily touching of others’ lives with words and love and action!
Please let our letters and publications to one another be expressions of love and caring, regardless of our functions, positions, locations or opinions, not merely collections of facts and references, And let’s laugh together, at ourselves and our foibles.
I truly would like to feel free to tease you, You take your responsibilities with such dead-pan seriousness. It’s just irresistable, particularly when your letters come across like a dandy stuffed shirt, as they sometimes do. (Well of couse, EVERYBODY can’t be so important …)
Remember, before we became readers of The Urantia Book, how we quibbled about doctrines and ethics? That really was an unproductive exercise; and I’m so glad we don’t have to do that anymore,
Well, I do have to get on to some other tasks. Please write again soon, and I promise I’ll try to return some encouraging thoughts.
— Maureen Cragg
Arlington, Virginia