Working Class, Shop Steward, and Re-emergent Man
Dear Harvey,
I was born and still live in Dublin, Ireland. I suppose "working-class" would be the most accurate way to describe my situation. My father died when I was eight years old. He was a wonderful, warm, hard-working man, who, not unusual for his generation, drank too much. He never failed to bring me for walks along the canal, he in his suit and Trilby hat. Those walks, holding his hand and watching the dog take to the water, remain very clear and very dear to me. His death was instant to me; I had no indication he was so ill. It left me and my mother on our own.
I was numb for years. It took over twenty years before I shed a tear, but now, five years later, they are still flowing for the loss of him, thanks to my luck in meeting someone involved in the RC Community.
Apart from that, I work for the railway company and have been a shop steward in various occupations for the past sixteen years. I must say that RC, and especially your insights and the discharge process, have been an invaluable source of support at so many levels of my life.
From the bottom of my heart may I say thank you. It would be difficult to describe the elation I feel from your clarity and sense of purpose and the depth of your love and caring for people. You are right, I think, when you say, "RC is the most profoundly revolutionary movement so far in the world."
I had a session the other night after reading your and Catherine Land's article in the April Present Time. I'm still not sure if I grasp the essence of the understatement. I tried it, and little happened that I noticed. However, I tried to take an attitude in my session of, I suppose, "being positive" instead of putting my attention on some problems. I thought of my sadness for a second, but then I relaxedly said, "Ah sure, the possibilities are endless." A yawn immediately descended, and another. I repeated the phrase again, in a relaxed tone, looking at a plant on the wall, and wow, this went on. I thought my jaw would break with the yawning - never yawned so much in my life.
I have acquired significant discouragement in my life, but as I went on saying this I seemed to dip into areas of huge potential I have tapped only superficially, and rafts of feeling and knowing how powerful, smart, and good I am came up.
Even thinking of the statement now has me yawning.
Fondest wishes to a beautiful and wonderful man.
Martin Maher
Dublin, Ireland