[Message from Andrew] I posted earlier that one of my favorite things to do at Foundation for A Course in Miracles was peruse the foreign language shelf in the bookstore where all the translations of ACIM were displayed. As something of a lay linguist (Noam Chomsky is a mentor) and world traveler, I simply love feeling part of an international community…. The last time I visited FACIM, I opened the Polish edition and saw Lucys name on the title page, and I was happy for her, feeling this was quite a memorial for her, a great legacy. Her death was such a shock to me. https://acim.org/Translations/polish.html Simply put, Lucy was one of the most interesting people Id ever met. I first met her in Seattle in 2002 when Ken and Gloria spoke at Seattle Unity Church, and then I met her again a few years later in Temecula. I was shocked by her dedication when she explained to me that she lived in Temecula (having relocated just to be near the Foundation), but had flown up to Seattle just to see Ken and Gloria speak at a two-day event. Apparently, she couldnt wait for them to return to Temecula.… At one point when I was in Temecula, in about 2005, Lucy and a few other Course students and I ended up having lunch together. Lucy mentioned that she lived in Temecula, but only worked part-time. A fellow Course student was surprised and said, I dont mean to be invasive, but Temecula is expensive. How can you afford to live here and only work part-time? Lucy then proceeded to tell a fascinating life story…. I used to be a controller, she said. She went on to talk about her career in the corporate world and how she made millions of dollars. She explained how competitive she became; I was at a point where I wanted to impress everyone; if a friend had done business in Australia, then I wanted to, just to show them up…. She continued, And I always had to wear name-brand products. Then she mentioned how the Course changed her: Today, I can just go to Walmart and buy a shirt for $7 and be just as happy. This was sort of a mind-blowing thing for me to hear, had a deep impact on me…. To think, money and social status doesnt necessarily equal happiness. A few days later, Lucy actually showed me some of her in-progress translation of the Course into Polish. Somehow, the conversation then drifted a song by one of my favorite singers, a woman named Basia from Poland. I asked Lucy to help me understand what Basia was saying at the end of her song My Reward. (m.youtube/watch?v=tFIkj1TOXhk) Lucy told me that Basia simply says You are my reward in Polish, and then she taught me how to say those words in Polish, even writing them down for me (thats Lucys handwriting on the piece of paper she gave me, which I tucked in my journal). A few days later, Ken took this picture of me with Lucy in front of the Foundation. Strange as it sounds, I remember doing some ballet moves in the parking lot, sort of an impromptu performance for Lucy, before the picture was taken (I used to be a dancer; https://m.youtube/watch?v=jEanruENeHY), and I remember Lucy squealing in delight, Oh, I LOVE ballet! It was wasnt until I read Lucys bio on the Foundation for Inner Peace page that I learned of her background as a violinist. In retrospect, I see now that this mayve in part explained a bond I had with both Lucy and Ken. Classical music was important to all of us. Lucy had played classical music; Ken was known to love classical music (he even had a conductora baton, which Gloria said he sometimes used while listening to Mozart), and Id grown up dancing to classical music. Anyway, I remember being sad that Lucy died at such a young age, shocked even, but I also remember being happy for her when I saw her name in the Polish translation of the Course, knowing her name would live on in quite an extraordinary way. And, boy, have I been fortunate to have known some fascinating people….
Posted on: Sun, 25 Jan 2015 13:47:15 +0000
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