Music that Never Ends

Breakfast came all too early, as we both knew it would. It started out as usual, though we were late. I was keenly aware of the fact that nothing had changed at the breakfast table as Anton and I walked in together, after a long and wonderful night of all sorts of dancing.

I expected things to be different, somehow. Everyone was there, and everyone behaved as if nothing had happened between us. Ten minutes must have passed in this fashion, then, suddenly, somebody cheered. They all made us appear as though we were heroes. Everyone came and congratulated us. Of course I realized that the real heroes were Steve, Ross, and Sylvia, not us, and all the others who had built the foundation for what has taken place. I regarded their cheering as their own celebration in acknowledgement of their contribution.

As the day progressed, both Anton and I felt that this step forward should also be reflected in an advanced contribution towards the success of the conference. If the unfolding of our love truly reflected the model of the sun that Ross had talked about the day before, then there should be an out-flowing energy forthcoming that enriches the world, that nourishes life, that makes it more expansive.

Anton and I explored the necessary dimension of this newly discovered principle, during lunch. The answer, of course, came naturally, but in a manner that surprised us both. Perhaps I shouldn't have been surprised by this, because Erica had predicted such an unfolding a dozen years ago in Leipzig. I could remember as if it were yesterday, that she had pointed out that to the degree the human needs are satisfied, the mind becomes free to expand towards the infinite. Indeed, by the developments that had taken place, between Anton and myself, our human needs had been richly satisfied. It was only natural, therefore, that we began to focus on meeting the larger needs of humanity. We both knew that those larger needs were far from being satisfied, and that the existing structures for meeting the most basic needs were still falling apart without hardly anyone being aware of it. A lot of vital aspects simply hadn't been addressed by the economic renewal that had begun.

Anton suggested that we develop a joint address to alert the assembly about the still developing world financial and economic crisis, since nothing had been resolved fundamentally. This crisis could still flare up again and become as devastating as a nuclear war, if not more so, and could itself become the very trigger for a nuclear war. The situation of the biologically engineered variety of food grain needed to be addressed, that produces high-yield harvests of infertile grains. We decided that we would share the work. We decided that I would talk about the artificially engineered high-yield strains of grain. I would explain that they came out of the laboratories of the fondis' food cartels. Then Anton would take up the paradox by pointing out that the resulting high-yield plants produce infertile seeds. Everyone should have been fully aware of this fact since it wasn't a secret anymore.

Then it would become my task to talk about the extensive market penetration of the infertile high-yield strains that had been accepted by the world out of sheer economic necessity as any farmer growing natural grains would be forced into bankruptcy in a short time because of the lower yield of the natural grains in tons per acre. I would point out that a lot of farmers did indeed go bankrupt over this issue.

The 'weeding out' process of the traditional farmers, out of the system, would then be addressed by Anton who would focus on the fact that this weeding out of the traditional farmers was artificially assured by the grain cartel's pricing structure, who had totally monopolized the grain markets.

At this point I would take up the paradox by pointing out that this process, that was being imposed around the world, was destroying the self-renewing capacity of the world's agriculture.

Anton would then point out that humanity was literally eating all of its natural seed grains, and that it would thereby become totally dependent on the cartels for its very existence. She would point out that the cartels have amply demonstrated that they have no interest in the welfare of humanity, but are in fact a tightly integrated functional entity within the royals' empire that was still the chief advocate for imposing radical, global, population reduction.

From this point on, we would both take up the paradox. I would point out that there exists no need for humanity to build its existence on high-yield infertile grains. I would point out that mankind's supposed dependence on this high-yield time bomb, was, like everything else artificially created. I would point out that it resulted from the economic destruction of traditional agriculture by means of austerity measures, disinvestment in infrastructures, slanted pricing policies, environmental insanity, and outright legal theft.

Then Anton would build on this paradox and point to the great riches of humanity in terms of the human genius for replenishing the world. I would then take the paradox further and define the development of infertile plants as an abuse of the genius of humanity, similar to the development of nuclear weapons, which were evidently deployed for the same purpose for which the infertile plants were deployed. Anton would take over from me at this point, and explain that the fundamental principle of technologies is reflected in mankind's ability to enrich the natural world, not to mutilate it. She would point out that it is the fundamental characteristic of the human genius to create resources that replenish the Earth with a rich vitality of life, and that humanity would live in a virtual paradise at this very moment were it not for the royals' wars against humanity that constantly destroy the very best that humanity has created.

We decided that our presentation should be structured in such a way as to create a powerful optimism at the end that reflects the quality of dancing which had become an important factor in our unfolding love for each other.

Naturally, the project came off perfectly as planned. It wasn't held back by fear or timidity, and made ineffective by self-doubts. We knew we could pull this off. As a matter of fact, the whole project became an exercise in dancing, by both of us, mentally of course, and by all we could tell, it was so understood.

It was not surprising after this that our entire clan came along with us that evening to our secret place for dancing, the place with the Latin music. It became the natural thing to do, and so the practice continued. Other people soon joined us. It became an unwritten rule, a tradition, until the conference ended. Naturally, the mentality that started this trend was more and more reflected in the conference itself. In a very real way, the conference was evolving a new attitude by the delegates towards each other. I remembered Anton's first letter where she said that it takes time for attitudes to change. We were both unaware, then, that it takes infinitely more than just time.

We were aware, however, this time around, that the process of unfolding had barely begun. We felt that we were still barely past the starting gate in the great race towards greater freedom.

One evening Anton and I ate supper by ourselves, away from our place for dancing, and went to a symphony concert right afterwards, for a different kind of 'dancing.' The Brahms Symphony Number One was performed. Heather had alerted me that the city has a symphony orchestra and that the First of Brahms was performed. She told me that she was surprised when she recognized how closely the music matched the way our love has unfolded, referring to Anton and me. I had hugged her for this in total agreement. I knew the symphony well. I had once tried to relate it to our love, a long time ago, but the comparison wasn't complete then. I suddenly realized that it was complete now and that a perfect match existed between the music and our love. I knew now what the pizzicato represented and the horn passage. I must have been so exited with the discovery that Heather went out the next day and bought a pair of tickets for us, as a present. All that remained from then on, was to invite Anton.

Anton was excited, too, to hear that Brahms would be performed in Venezuela, and more so when I told her that the tickets were Heather's gift of love. Tears came to her eyes amidst the brightness of her smiles. She told me that she had read somewhere that Brahms had struggled for many years with this symphony until he was finally satisfied that all the elements would work together. She explained that she can fully understand his struggles, because she herself, had experienced such struggles over many years which finally were resolved into joy. "Did Brahms' final version of it become as great a symphony as ours has become?" she asked.

"The two are equal," I told her, "one reflects the other. With his first symphony Brahms has put into music the way our love has unfolded as if he had known several hundred years ago what would invariably unfold between people like us."

We arrived at the concert hall just in time. Had we arrived any later, we would have missed the Beethoven opening. The concert was performed in a much smaller hall than the one that housed the conference. The atmosphere was more intimate. There were no banners in the background, or tables on the stage for the experts and the organizers. Instead, the stage was filled with artists bearing instruments for music. I remarked that an orchestra is like a nation. Not one of them can accomplish alone, what can only be accomplished on a larger scale. "The performance of a symphony requires the support of many people." As I said this to Anton, quietly, the music was beginning to unfold. She squeezed my hand as though she realized that this comment applied more directly to the symphony of our love.

I answered with the same gesture.

"It is right for us to become sensitive to the contributions of other people who helped build the basis for our being together, here," she said quietly and smiled.

"And to be sensitive of our own work," I added. "We should be sensitive to all this as we listen to the music."

When the Beethoven prelude and symphony were over, during the intermission, I told her that we had a great treat in store for us. I told her that there is a lot in this symphony that we should listen for. "With this symphony Brahms tells the story of our love, beginning with the very first bars of the music. It opens with a powerful and drawn out statement that is played by he full orchestra. The music of it describes exactly what I felt the day when I stepped of the airplane in Moscow and saw you standing at the reception desk. The music reflects this powerful feeling. Then, the music becomes soft, sweet, and melodic, but not for long. Soon, you'll hear the powerful motive repeated, though less strongly. It reflects the feeling when we met at the restaurant that night, high above Moscow, though interwoven with other melodies. In fact, the entire first movement presents in musical language all that had happened to us back then, when our hearts spoke and we had no words to provide answers. It reflects the daring, the hope, the struggles, even the tears that came with our inability to compose a simple letter that says, I love you. Close to the end of the first movement, the music becomes quieter and reflects the compassion I felt when I didn't see you at the panel during the final days, knowing that you would have loved to be there. The movements ends with a soft, sweet, and peaceful melody that reflects those brief moments when you presented your letter to me and pinned a flower on my coat.

"I must warn you, however. The first movement, though it is the least beautiful movement of the symphony, creates a feeling that closely matches what we have experienced when we tried to embrace a love for which no foundation had been established at the time. We had tried to explain our love in letters, and as soon as we wrote them, we tore them up again, because they were not right. They were not right until the only factor that was left standing, naked as it were, that reflected nothing else than our commitment to enrich one-another's life. I am sure, it was this commitment to enrich one-another, that provided the substance for that wonderful peace that followed afterwards, that had remained undiminished for all those years that followed. This was the great breakthrough that came out of the Moscow conference, perhaps the greatest that ever came out of any peace conference.

"This peace is reflected in the second movement of the symphony, which is the slow movement. You had said in your letter, please think about me now an then. Oh, I have thought about you many a times. Those occasions have always created a feeling of peace, and joy, knowing that you exist, somewhere, and that perhaps we may meet again whenever this becomes possible. The slow movement reflects my feelings of this time, my feelings of peace that pervaded those many years. And as I said before, this feeling was based on nothing more than a faint commitment to enrich each other. No tensions were left standing between us. The music of the second movement reflects this peace with beautiful melodies. Many times when I had thought of you, I had listened to this symphony, mainly to the first two movements. The rest I didn't understand, except I knew, that somehow our love would unfold further, some day. I had tried to dream about this further unfolding. You know, the problem with dreaming is, that one doesn't dream tall enough. This is also reflected in the music. The second movement ends with a soft, sweet passage reminiscent of dreams.

"The scherzo that follows the slow movement continues on this platform, Anton, but with a greater sense of fulfillment. The scherzo reflects our first days together in Caracas. The music is playful, magical, reminiscent of fairy tale wonders, lighthearted, and flows much faster now. Did you know that we never really looked back during our days here, to the olden days, as if the past was taken care of and was behind us. There remained no questions to be answered that we hadn't already answered ourselves. We were just glad to be together, and were moving ahead in an atmosphere of peace and joy. We were facing each other on a playful level within the flow of the conference, discussing speeches and comments. Only at the deeper level there was a stirring unfolding that faintly pervaded the playful atmosphere. Ah, but the scherzo doesn't even hint at the great power of those movements that came later. Only near the end of the scherzo do the melodies become more serious, just as it was with us when I was looking for a present for you and Sylvia. That's when the scherzo ended. That present wasn't delivered within the context of the scherzo, as you may have felt. The reflection of this explosive unfolding is rightfully found in the opening bars of the last movement of Brahms' symphony. Presenting my present to you was my acknowledgment to you as a bright and beautiful morning star. It marked the beginning of momentous discoveries of those underlying principles that we had stumbled upon, but had never understood in a scientific sense until that time.

"The symphony's last movement begins with a brief burst of something majestic. To me, this short burst of majestic music represents those moments of great joy I felt when I presented to you that diamond pin. A deeper basis for our love unfolded from this that would soon be enriching to everyone around us.

"After this burst of great joy, Brahms' music becomes very quiet, in the final movement," I said. "It becomes changed into a soft and simple melody that is suddenly superimposed by a pizzicato statement that really stands out clear and sharp, and is repeated again moments later. To me, these two pizzicato statements are reminiscent of the scientific breakthroughs that Ross presented, which were like bugle calls to consciousness to get moving. What I find remarkable, though, is the timing that linked the two events. Ross delivered his speech the very next day after I presented you the pin that represents the Morning Star.

"Ah, but when you hear the pizzicato, get ready, and listen to the unfolding discoveries that immediately lead to the greatest burst of joy that we felt, that is immediately followed by a beautiful horn passage. Do you remember that great burst of joy that we felt when we met in the shopping mall that day? You let all your shopping bags drop onto the floor, remember? After this we were locked into a long embrace. This embrace is represented by the horns in the long drawn out horn passage.

"In the symphony, this beautiful horn passage unfolds out of a powerful symphonic burst; a realization burn it joy. It unfolds with a deeply moving slow melody that reflects the satisfied, fulfilled mood of our embrace that had brought tears to our eyes that day. You'll get the feeling that this music of the horns is as long drawn out as our embrace had been.

"In time the horn passage gives way to a lighter melody, a joyous melody that plays on the theme with which Beethoven interprets Friedrich Schiller's Ode to Joy, which he had set to music in his 9th Symphony. This joyous theme reflects our dinner that evening, and our daring dancing to the melody of our soul that flowed on deep into the night.

"This slightly reminiscent theme reoccurs many times after that. But soon, it too gives way to other, faster melodies, melodies that are fit for social dancing that alternate and increase in power, and continue in an extended symphonic flow that seems to incorporate all the peace, and joy, and power of our celebration that day; and that of the next day; and that of all the days that followed. And if you listen carefully, you may even find one more element represented, from the celebrations of our first night together, in the form of an interlude between the powerful dance-melodies. During this interlude the music becomes lighthearted and joyous which seems to reflect the element of our symphony when I washed your birthday suite from top to bottom before we went to bed, and you felt honored thereby.

"Still, this doesn't end the symphony, Anton. As the final movement draws to a conclusion, the power of the music becomes constantly greater, in which all the major elements become repeated. The horn theme becomes interwoven into it, and the theme of joy, and the powerful dance themes. Finally the music continues at this powerful level for some time as though the composer was saying: this is completeness. You can't go further, you can't have more. On that note the symphony abruptly ends, but it won't end in your mind. The melodies are too powerful, they simply won't end.

"Our listening, and our response to this symphony, tonight, will likely reflect this grand finale that brings everything together in a powerful sense of completeness. Still, as I said, the structure of the finale is such that the music doesn't give one the feeling of an ending. Rather it conveys a feeling that the finale goes on and on. At this point you get a sense that the musicians are no longer needed, who consequently stop playing and vacate the stage. But the music won't stop. I predict the music will remain with you long after we leave the hall, and I think this is how it will be with our love, too. There won't be any ending, nor any loss of the peace, the joy, and the power we have found in our lives for having been together, which are somehow intertwined with our love. What we have discovered in the unfolding course of our love, is an ever clearer sense of the principle of unity which can only become manifest in a commitment to enrich one-another's existence even more than before. The greater the freedom became, with which we allowed ourselves to do this, the richer and more powerful became the manifestation thereof. And for this, there can be no end."

At this point, while I was still speaking, the conductor raised his baton and the grand opening statement unfolded that began a flow of music, which by all probability, would remain with us for the rest of our lives as some cherish a favorite song, only more so, much more so.

After the concert was over, as we were waiting at the bus stop, Anton remarked that she was probably the only person in the audience who had been moved to tears by the symphony.

"I know, Anton, I saw your tears," I said quietly, "you squeezed my hand when the horn passage began, and several times thereafter. But don't be so sure that you were the only one crying."

She squeezed my hands again, gently, as I spoke, and as she did, there were more tears in our eyes again. Luckily, the bus was late in coming, or maybe we had missed it altogether.

We hadn't waited long when we both felt that it would be more appropriate to walk home. There was no reason to rush back to the hotel. After all, who would want to be surrounded by four walls so soon after having been touched by this powerful music? The evening was warm, and the night was still young; a perfect setup for two lovers.

"I am completely happy," Anton said at one point along the way as we passed through narrow, crowded streets lined with shops. "But where do we go from here?" she asked.

"We go on with outstretched arms, looking for more," I replied. I told her that we had barely begun to touch upon the infinite dimension of love. "Love cannot exist in isolation, but requires all mankind to share it," I said. I knew that this was so, because I had come to recognize that love is one of the elements that manifests itself in establishing unity, that love, in fact, cannot exist without its manifest. I also recognized that the dimension of unity was boundless, an aspect we had barely touched upon, much less explored. We were still nothing more than pioneers in this domain. We had taken a bold step across the threshold into this domain. By this, something had changed, something had enriched our life. A small step of progress had been made, and oh, I felt infinitely richer that night, because of it. It was a royal treat to be walking home with her among the crowd of people. We were smiling at each other and the world. Something had happened during those few days that should not have been possible. We had a moved a mile forward beyond the barriers of all the conventions of the world, and had won a type of freedom that most people didn't even dare dream about.

"Do you think people can sense our happiness and feel enriched by it?" asked Anton some moments later.

"Yes, indeed, Anton! Just think how poor our love would be if it touched only us. If we were to confine our love so that it would exist only between us. It would then be but another circumference, another boundary, and another prison. Love must be reflected everywhere, universally, for it to be. A fundamental principle cannot be limited to us. That's what unity means, that's what it must be build on. There exists no other basis for it. Our love must enrich the lives around us, or else it is a fake. Love is a light that lightens the world. Anything short of that is a claim without substance."

We stopped by a window on the way, which displayed all kinds of hats. There was love reflected in the workmanship and the design of those hats. We walked on. "You are totally right," she agreed, "we cannot let our love stop here, not even at this wonderful level of freedom that we have attained. If we allow this to happen, we will be cheating ourselves."

"Look at what Brahms did," I pointed out. "The flow of love that had enriched his existence is richly reflected in his music. It has enriched the ages. It has enriched us. If we circumscribe love with a boundary we may not experience love at all, then the world will be a dark place in which people experience nothing more than stirred up emotions. This, certainly, wasn't the way our love has unfolded."

She nodded and then kissed me for saying this. "Our love has more than enriched just us and those who were touched by it," she said. "It has enriched our entire group, perhaps even the whole conference. Would Sylvia have stood up and changed the rules of the conference without the subtle prompting by our love that was reflected in that letter I had sent to you, and the one you had sent back? And look, it all came back to us a hundred fold. I think those riches that we create for ourselves are the most precious of all the riches that can ever be had, don't you agree?"

I nodded and smiled. "Do you remember how you dropped your shopping bags that evening in that burst of great joy when I told you that the others wouldn't be waiting for us at the bus stop? You must have recognized right there and then that our love has touched all of them, deeply, and that those riches were being reflected back at us. At least, that is what I had recognized. I felt totally secure in that environment. This is the test of the true metal, isn't it?"

We stopped, smiled at each other, and embraced each other right there and then, right in the middle of the flow of people, almost hindering their passing by.

"It has been said that outer space is humanity's final frontier," said Anton quietly with tears of joy in her face. "This saying is wrong," she added. "I think the final frontier is love. We are already well-established in space. We have walked on the moon and have sent research probes to several of the planets. Space has become our extended home, but who can say this about love? Do we find a rich and overflowing love in the hearts of humanity? Rarely! It appears to me that love is humanity's final frontier, not space. Just look at us, even we have barely begun to explore this frontier."

Anton stopped and spoke in a sad tone suddenly, pointing to a war memorial at the center of the square that we came upon. "There have never been so many wars in progress than there are now," she said. "Nor has there ever been so much wanton destruction perpetrated as we have it today. Country after country is being destroyed. Some governments murder their own people for political goals, while society as a whole enslaves its children by the hundreds of millions for financial gain, rather than creating the means for them to be educated that they may develop their genius. Where is the spark of love that should have ignited a 'fire-storm' across the world, warming the hearts of humanity? There is nothing happening on this frontier. Instead, we see hearts ripped apart all over the world, or being starved to death."

"Ah, be careful, Anton" I cautioned her. "Don't forget the few daring strides forward that humanity has made in the course of this century. Do you remember the Marshall Plan that had rescued Europe out of the dumps after World War II? This vast financial aid package had been created for rebuilding the very same nation that had just finished destroying almost all of Europe. This aid was the substance of a richly overflowing love. The Marshall Plan was a spark of love that lit a fire. The German nation had been touched by this love and inspired by it. Rather than spending the aid money Germany created large amounts of financial credits out of its own love for itself to rebuild its economy. The entire rebuilding was done out of Germany's own resources. Of the Marshall plan money, not a single penny had ever been spent. The Marshall plan provision served merely as a backing for the people's own rescue effort, a kind of confidence builder. This kind of processes, sadly, is no longer made, though the principle is as valid today as it was then. Today, instead of being founded on love, the whole society is stealing from each other. No one is building another person or nation up."

I mentioned to Anton that in today's loveless world, humanity is actually no longer allowed to provide its own resources for its self-development. Instead, it is forced to 'rent' whatever money it requires from the feudal lords that rule the financial world, who require them to pay a huge ransom for it that thereby destroys the receiving nations. I suggested to Anton that this was not how it was after the Marshall Plan had touched the war torn nation of Germany. I told her that I was quite certain that it was the inspiration of the love that had prompted the Marshal Plan, had caused the nation of Germany to create its own financial infrastructure for its self-development. That's why also the result of it was extremely rich. The economic recovery that came out of this process created phenomenal riches for its people, without creating inflation. "Love causes no inflation, but enriches the whole human society," I said to Anton.

I suggested a while later that this means that the riches of society can never be measured by the amounts of money piled up in its coffers, but must be measured by the riches that it creates itself, by which it uplifts everyone's existence. Unless this happens, a society is poor. "Money has no value outside of the processes that support a nation's self-development," I said, "and even then, the value of this money corresponds to nothing more than what is being produced by the economy that it is a part of. Whatever more is claimed, than that, is stolen from others, and that has become a scourge that is destroying the world."

Anton nodded. "Yes, I think I learned this a long time ago," she answered. "All the good in the world comes from the heart. Humanity must create for itself the riches it desires, which it is well capable of creating."

Anton stopped talking after this and kissed me, as if it were in response of this realization. "Indeed, this unfolding of a nation's riches through its self-development must flow on the same basis as our love flows," she added. "Both manifest the same principle by which the manifests of love must flow in inexhaustible streams."

She looked at me as if she was surprised by a sudden realization. "Isn't the idea absurd that one must rent money to enrich one-another. The expression of love cannot be rented. Nor can anyone hoard love as people hoard money, or pile it up as people pile up their gold in deep dug cellars hidden from the sunlight."

"It seems to me, Anton," I replied while we embraced each other in a nearby park, "that the freer we allowed our love to flow, the richer it became for all, Sylvia and the others included. I'll never forget how wonderfully everyone supported our love, almost from the moment when you came to Caracas. Did you feel that support?"

Anton nodded. "Especially Sylvia's support, but Heather's too. I was so deeply touched when Heather bought us those concert tickets," she replied. "I couldn't help crying for joy."

"This is precisely the impact we need to have on the world through this conference," I suggested. "We must turn the whole world upside down. We must inspire enough love to stop the wars, and enough riches that assure all the feuding parties a place in the sun. Notwithstanding, whoever wants to have a place in the sun can only have it on the platform of love. This means we must help humanity to build the Eurasian Land-Bridge that Ushi is working on, in order to bring 'light' to Eurasia, Africa, and the Americas, creating by such means an infinitely richer world than exists now. In real terms there can be no limit for love being reflected. Love will be as rich as we will be able to acknowledge it to be. The Eurasian Land-Bridge that we must build, can only be build when humanity's love for itself provides freely to each other whatever credits are needed for a richer life, just as we bring to one-another our love. This means the world's nations need national banks for this purpose, not private feudal banks. Why should humanity be required to rent its life-blood at a steep price when it has the power to create for itself whatever finances it requires for its self-development? Humanity must give itself the gift of a Marshall Plan, just as we bring to each other the gift of our love. We don't need a global World Bank that steals from the world, we need a unity of sovereign nations with their own national banks that help their people to realize their potential. That's where we must go, from here."

"Do you belief that our gift to each other is already inspiring such a movement?" she asked.

I told her that I believed this most definitely. Moments later, when I saw another hat shop I suggested that we should go inside and try some of them on. The store had a large selection. Of course, Anton looked stunningly beautiful no matter what hat she tried on. She said the same about me. Indeed, it was hard to make intelligent choices, so we left the store without buying anything and went on. Actually, we didn't need those hats or any other artificial embellishments. We felt like being richer than the Sultan of Brunai, right as we were. There was no need to add one iota, if indeed is was possible to do that. Still, I couldn't keep the hats out of my mind, because it was evidently the brightness of our love that had made the hats grand to look at and to wear. We saw things that the hats, by themselves, could never bring out. Steve's comment came to mind that he had made in Venice, that people who love deep from the heart, are beautiful. Anton fully agreed. "This is what makes us so infinitely rich, so that nothing needs to be added," she said smiling. "And more than that, our love must overflow and touch the whole world, because the flow of love is boundless and infinite by design." She smiled. We kissed. "Don't you agree?" she added?

Oh, I agreed, though words had failed me to answer her fully. Indeed, our love had made this night beautiful, nor did its flow end when we stepped out of the gondola lift that night at the hilltop station of our hotel. Being build on the high ridge above the valley, no better place could be found to look upon the city. The valley was filled with a long strung out river of sparkling lights that sparkled as brightly that night as our smiles had sparkled. I didn't dare point this out, though, lest I would utter another cliche.

Anton's room faced away from the city, towards the mountains and the sea. Usually, before we went to bed, we spent some time on the balcony. This night was no exception. We sat there to unwind. We watched the stars and talked about the beautiful things the day had brought. That's when Anton repeated her earlier question. "Where do we go from here? This night has been grand. But what shall we do now? I'm too wound up. We can't possibly to go to bed, yet. And what about tomorrow? Are we going to sit by the site of the pool and play shuffle board, or break out a deck of cards, or go bowling?"

"God, no!" I protested. "That won't do! We mustn't! I can't play such games anymore where one person wins at the expense of another, and wastes a lot of time doing so. Life is too precious for that. We could go bowling, perhaps, and there help one-another to perfect our technique. Nothing will suffice anymore that doesn't enrich one-another and everyone else, too. We can't step back into a mold that we've outgrown, that is counterproductive, that doesn't satisfy or accomplish anything. What we have created for ourselves is too precious for that. I won't play confrontational games anymore. Besides, that's not the way our love has been. It has never been confrontational. We have encouraged each other to deal with the impasses that stood in the way, even the sexual impasses, but we have never played against each other, not once. If we had, our love wouldn't have become so exceedingly rich."

"I know, what we have created is wonderful," Anton agreed, "but the question remains, where do we go from here? We can't go backwards, that's obvious. This door is closed, but we can't stop either. We must keep on moving ahead. It must be possible to step beyond even this wonderful stage that we are at. It must be possible to go further. It must be possible for our love to unfold more and more, because there is no such thing as a hard and fast limit in this universe. Except, how to we move ahead? What must be our next step?"

I agreed that we couldn't just stop. We would loose everything that we have established. And why should we stop? "The answer is simple." I said. "We need to move closer and closer towards the sublime. We experience the sublime in a state of love that transforms the world, that uplift people beyond themselves to a state of loving that enriches everyone they come into contact with, even the whole of humanity. A Tibetan monk once told me that he will not be satisfied with his mental powers until he can light a candle with a mere gesture or a touch. By the same token can we measure if our love unfolds in the sublime," I added, "when we light a fire in someone's soul with a single thought, or gesture, or touch, that brightens their days, that transforms their living, that enriches their being alive."

"But how will we ever accomplish that?" Anton responded.

"One step at a time, Anton."

I suggested to her as we sat on our balcony, after a long period of silence, that the key to the answer might be found in the compositions of Tchaikovsky. "Compare in your mind his first piano concerto with his last symphony," I said. "His first piano concerto is bubbling over with enthusiasm and optimism, while his last symphony, the Pathetique, is a gloomy, anguished, mournful work about betrayed hopes, tragedies, and suffering. It is a symphony that doesn't end with a powerful crescendo like Brahms' great symphonies. Instead, it ends with a mournful statement that trails out into total silence." I suggested that with this music Tchaikovsky described his own fate, a life of anguish and disappointment that he couldn't deal with, that may have ended in suicide. "He must have felt that his life wasn't his own. The world didn't accept him the way he was. Society had cast a different mold for him. It owned him. It had power over him. It encumbered his life with expectations he couldn't fulfill. His last symphony represents the fate of a man who had reached up to the sublime, who had expressed it in his music, but had pulled back from his life. This may be the fate that humanity is presently heading towards," I said to Anton. "Humanity has brought forth great spiritual pioneers, artists, scientists, geniuses, but it can't embrace their vision since it has encumbered itself with the hell drawn burdens of property. Everything becomes encumbered by it. Its very existence becomes strangled by it, and it can't let go of it out of fear for the unknown. Such an ending cannot be allowed to occur. Our goal must be to prevent it by creating a new renaissance, by creating a new image for humanity that is free from this burden, that bubbles over with joy and enthusiasm, like Tchaikovsky's first piano concerto. This may be a near infinite task, but it must be achieved. In fact, it can only be achieved when we move forward; when we embrace sublimity in order to embrace infinity."

I suggested that Tchaikovsky died because of his self-isolation, and that humanity will suffer the same fate if the basis for its universal unity cannot be restored. "If this task cannot be fulfilled, the sixth symphony of Tchaikovsky portrays humanity's doom, and that is our doom. The sixth symphony even contains a passage that sounds like a nuclear war that unfolds out of a deeply moving emptiness, followed by the continuation of that same emptiness after the thunder has run its course."

I suggested to Anton that the challenges to accomplish this great work should determine our next footsteps, whatever they might be. "I think we haven't even begun to explore what underlies the unity of people." I said to her. I suggested that our own next step in this direction might be to invite Sylvia and Heather to share our happiness, and to join as partners in our goal. "By this sharing everyone will be enriched," I said. "It may even uplift the conference as a whole, still further. We can't help, but become enriched whenever we expand the platform for unity on which our love has unfolded."