As Father Time intensifies his speed and subsequent toll on the fleeting years of my life, I have reduced the scope of my Turtle Tracks to hopefully have greater impact on my immediate families (genetic, Baha’i, Tribune and Hoffler Manor). With the reduction of involvement however has evolved increase in dedication and time consumption, which always manages to have a few hidden extras thrown in.
Among them, the unique experience of finding myself appearing before Judge Molumphy in Roanoke County Traffic Court for a charge of “failing to turn right (soon enough) from a right turn lane.” With my 60-year record of (we’ll say) excessive speed with hardly any record to show for it there was no way I was going to let this trivial charge go uncontested. I was sure that any fair- minded judge would throw both the officer and me out of his court to get to real cases. It wasn’t quite that simple. After respectfully listening to both sides, he issued a judgment which was as respectful to each of us as he possibly could be, finding reason to charge me, as he put it, but not doing so, by placing me on 90-day probation, pending no further charges. I was so impressed with the diplomacy of his decision as well as with the unbelievable manner in which he expeditiously handled the volume of cases before him in about an hour’s time. The moral of this story? If you have to get traffic tickets, try to get them in Roanoke County and try to get (substitute) Judge Molumphy if you possibly can.
My busy past weekend starting with hosting a special Devotional Gathering for my next-door neighbors (the Foxes, as the “Neighborhood Baha’is”) that turned out to be most rewarding. The following morning I tipped through Roanoke County to and from an 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. teacher training session in Salem. Then on Sunday, following an 11:00 a.m. 19-Day Baha’i Feast, and a 6 p.m. meeting of the Baha’i LSA (Local Spiritual Assembly, both also at my home) my son, daughter and their four children converged on me for dinner, after spending their weekend together as real family. This was the most rewarding thing of all–cohesion of the family unit, which is dependent upon spiritual growth for lasting results.
At this critical juncture in the evolution and maturity of mankind, Baha’is around the world are being diligently trained to be spiritual teachers of spiritual children. “Spiritual children are dearer than physical children for it is possible for physical children to turn away from the Spirit of God,” we read in the Baha’i Holy Writings. But the development of spiritual children is contingent upon spiritual teachers, upon which emphasis is currently being strongly placed in Baha’i Administration.
“The aim is this: the intention of the teacher must be pure, his heart independent, his spirit attracted, his thought at peace, his resolution firm, his magnanimity exalted, and the love of God a shining torch. Should he become as such, his sanctified breath will even effect the rock; otherwise there will be no result whatsoever,” the writings continue.
Sorely needed today throughout the world are well-trained spiritual teachers for development to fullest potential of the spiritual children of the individual family, the community and of the subsequent worldwide family of man. The worlds most precious resources are not minerals, oil or rare stones but our children in whose hands the future depends.
