How they came

In 1999 my partner and I decided to walk our dogs around the block in our new neighborhood.Halfway around we came upon a garage sale in progress. Sitting in the middle of the floor was a little red box with cables hanging from it and clamps on the ends. It said welder across the front of it and so I thought “if I had this I could stick stuff together”. I gave the owner $90 and walked off with it. Even though I had never welded anything before or studied about welding I immediately began making things.

At that time in my life I was doing windshield repair around Denver and had numerous business accounts that had metal scrap bins. They would let me take the scrap I wanted and I had been collecting for years.

I started with ACIM in 1987 and was really focusing on Ken Wapnick’s cassettes. He reallystruck a cord with me, so much so that I seemed to be conversing with him in my mind. When the ideas started coming, they flowed. I could relate to Richard Dreyfus’s character in Close encounters of the third kind when he was frantically building an image of the Devil’s Tower in his living room. I did not have time time to clean up the slag from the metal or make it pretty because the next idea was right there waiting to be built. Ken was a definite comfort in my mind.

Over the next 2 years or so dozens of sculptures appeared in my back yard. Many of them reflect the core principles of the course so beautifully that I just smile when I see them. Amazingly without any welding experience not one of them has come apart.

At one point Ken came to Denver to give two lectures and one happened to be at the Rocky Mountain Miracle Center where I was studying the Course. I packed up seven or eight of the sculptures and set them up behind the church. After the lecture I convinced Ken to take a look. He offered a painfully neutral response and I thanked him for his time. I was crushed. I thought that they were meaningful and exciting and he evidently did not. They have been standing around my property ever since and I have thoroughly enjoyed them. I did not make any more sculptures but I did continue my studies with Ken and the Course.

It wasn’t till recently that realized what really happened when I offered my sculptures to Ken for his blessing. He did a Cordillia on me. What could his proper response be but to love and be silent. I smiled inside when I understood his response and recognized how meaningless these symbols are. Yet, I have come to the conclusion that they are but teaching devices to help elevate the mind to the Mind for those so inclined, and so I have a reason to present them.

In reality, the key to the gate of Heaven does not exist,but it sure is helpful on this side of the gate.

In honor of Ken
The Perfect Teacher