PERSONAL BAHA'I ARCHIVES PART 1

This is a photograph of cat hair caught on a rug. I don't know if it belongs to MrDonut or to Pocket Cat. Knowing would require further investigation and we aren't going to. We know of a certainty that the traveling exhibit of genuine Baha'i artifacts might include a hair, or a lock of hair, from the head of Baha'u'llah Himself. We have seen a hair from the head of Baha'u'llah. It was being passed around the West Chester PA Baha'i community many years ago. It looked like a long, black hair. We did not ask how they knew it was from Baha'u'llah. Either it was, and it possessed a mighty provenance, or it belonged to somebody else, and it was here because someone's faith was greater than their virtue. There was no note attached. IIt looked clean, but we wondered when He had washed it last.



This is Betty J. Eadie's book "Embraced by the Light." It is a travelogue of her after-life experiences. One of her final stops was at a council of nine men, who seemed to have the final dibs on advice. When MrDonut read it he asked if these nine men were maybe the spirits of the Universal House of Justice. "Were they eating pancakes?" we asked. "It doesn't say," said MrDonut. "Did she say they were Baha'is?" "No," said MrDonut. "Then I have no idea." If the traveling exhibit of genuine Baha'i artifacts includes a pancake, or a portion of a pancake, we will take this investigation to its next level.




This is a monkey with a lamp coming out of his head. He is reading a Book of Laws. Our archivists have determined that it is a very, very disrespectful image of a Baha'i reading the Kitab-i-Aqdas. Sometimes when you are exhibiting artifacts you have to show the bad with the good.



This is a chair that was made before Baha'u'llah was born. It is included here to give the observer a feel for how long ago Baha'u'llah lived. You can get a feel for how long He waited for someone to invent the telephone by noting the plastic outlet behind the chair.



In his nine years in the stone cell in Acca, did Baha'u'llah dream of these flowers rising up from blue sky? Was each stitch counted for a teardrop? Did the artist's heart have to break to release the image?



This is figure 1 of 2. It shows a bunch of loops sewn tightly together and bending in an arc. Is this the Arc of Salvation? Are you kidding? It is a rug! Do you see the center? No!



Figure 2. Here is the center. Isn't it beautiful! It is a braided tweed wool rug. It is a symbol of unity, since all the circles circle around the central point. Some people think of unity as spokes in a wheel that meet at the hub. That is fascisti. We like to see the motion and diversity and similarities and solid binding of all those circles. Isn't it more life-like? Real Baha'i unity is life-like, alive.




This is MrDonut. He makes kind of a circle, too. His is the Circle of The Nap. He is the only one in the circle. All of him revolves around his tummy. Animals live in perfect unity of self. Mess with MrDonut's unity of self and you might walk away with a band-aid on your face. This is how it should be with all of us. We must enjoy, preserve and protect the unity within.



So you can study it again, MrDonut has given permission to repeat his photograph. Think rest.



This is a paperweight from a military school that was founded in 1874. You do not have to know what the Latin says. This was one year after Baha'u'llah wrote the Kitab-i-Aqdas. We believe it is possible that the school's founders were inspired by the law-order-and-love message in that Book. The school lasted for about 100 years. The Kitab-i-Aqdas was released in English in 1993. If you can find one person who can obey it all, MrDonut will give you his can of Fancy Feast.



This is something Baha'u'llah might have dreamed of. It is a Microsoft Trackball Optical Mouse. It is terrific for people with tremors, like Baha'u'llah had. It rests in your hand like a clam with a big pearl on its side. You never have to pick it up. If your are having problems with anything, ask Baha'u'llah to inspire someone to come up with a solution. If this is what He could do in His sleep, what can He do now that He is super-alive?



This is something Baha'u'llah might have wanted when He was in the dungeon. It is a lamp with a special bulb that gives off sunlight. Not only does it make things look nice, as if they were out on the table on a sunny day. It helps the brain to keep producing the chemical that keeps our moods level and wards off depression. On second thought, maybe Baha'u'llah preferred not to see what was crawling all over Him.



This is a ceramic fish. Do you see it crying? When Baha'u'llah was young His father dreamed He was swimming in the ocean. Fish were holding on to every strand of His long black hair, but He swam easily. Someone told His father this meant that all the nations would come to Him for safety, but He would not be injured. I don't know where he got that story, since Baha'u'llah suffered many injuries. Anyway, that is why the fish is crying, for Baha'u'llah. Note: the other side of the fish doesn't have any tears. Interpretation belongs to the reader.




This is a collection of George Price cartoons. George Price worked for the New Yorker in the 'thirties and 'forties. His work is unforgettable to generations. Here is one: A man is flying through the air toward an archery target. His coach says: "Frankly, Mr.Harding, you'll never get anywhere until you learn to release the arrow." Most of the cartoons are quite dated. We know that Baha'u'llah possessed a droll wit. We know that at the gates of Acca, the Holy Family in chains, 'Abdu'l-Baha sang lively songs to cheer them through. Much of their humor would probably be by now out of date and difficult to follow, but it is certain that laughter was the secret ingredient that restored their minds.



This is the mouthpiece end of a didgeridoo, a wind instrument played from ancient times to the present by the aboriginal Australians.



This is the middle section of the didgeridoo.



This is the horn end of the didgeridoo. If you wanted to learn how to play the didgeridoo by studying these three pictures, you would never make it. A didgeridoo, a quilt, a shoelace, a flannel shirt, a colorful pillow, a sofa. What do you do with the shoelace? Do you hold it with the flannel shirt? Do you rest the horn on the colorful pillow? It is five feet long! Do you lay it on the sofa to play it? Is the quilt for polishing it afterward? This may be like Baha'u'llah's Revelation. There it is. There are skeen-teen other things around it. Some are practical, some are pretty, and how do they connect with Baha'u'llah? They don't! The Revelation is yours! It is in your hands. The didgeridoo should be in your hands, and your mouth should be over the mouthpiece, and you should be blowing into it, every day, until you can play it like a bass flute. Play the Revelation!



Here is the didgeridoo again. It has turned into Pocket Cat! See the flannel shirt, the quilt, the string? It's a miracle! Isn't that what Baha'u'llah does, miracles? What would Baha'u'llah think if he saw you falling for that one!