"I'm sorry, but I can't get my mind off the images from New Orleans."

"I can't either and I'm addicted to watching all the TV coverage."

"It's like losing a dear old friend. My family used to go there when I was a kid and all its sounds, sights and smells are embedded in my memory."

"I don't get the so-called rescue and evacuation effort. All the people with cars and money got out before the storm hit. But that left 150,000 poor, mostly black, people there to do the best they could."

"Why wasn't every bus, train, plane marshaled to get everyone out?"

"And then after the storm and the flood, why weren't all means used to get rescuers and vital provisions in there?"

"Probably because most of our means for helping are tied down in Iraq — and let's face it, the administration doesn't care."

"It's that lethal combination of arrogance and incompetence the Bush government is famous for."

"It seems to me Karl Rove has now taken charge of the rescue and recovery effort. His kinds of phrases and lingo are starting to appear. You know like 'Let's not play the blame game.' Soon the president's reputation will again be safe."

"I wonder whether the Republicans will actually end up sacrificing Bush — letting him take the fall — to hold on to power. Notice they've pre-positioned Cheney on the Gulf Coast to lead the move towards efficiency."

"So in 2005 Republican leadership, the focus is on saving legacies and pre-positioning politicians rather than helping people."

"Well, I know we're all honestly expressing our feelings and opinions but can we offer some help in Christian Science?"

"What about starting off with what we're grateful for?"

"You mean like we're glad Katrina didn't hit New York?"

"Frankly, I can't think of anything. Why don't you start?"

"Okay. I'm grateful for the courage of those who've gone through the ordeal. Would I have the spiritual stamina and grace they have?"

"Well, I'm grateful the eye of the storm didn't go in west of New Orleans and bring a 25 foot wall of water over the levees. You'd have 100,000 dead now."

"I'm grateful the Superdome didn't collapse."

"Thank God for the facilities in Baton Rouge, Houston, Dallas and all over the country where people are going."

"I'm grateful the dangerous incoherence and immorality of the Republican administration has been exposed for all to see."

"Let's not get too gleeful. They're still in charge of saving lives."

"Please! Keep the safety of lives in the hands of God. I'm trying to see through the Bush vacuum state to God's actual power in operation."

"You mean like Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy."

"Perfect."

"Can we get some real Science here?"

"When I first got worried and started working on Katrina the Saturday before it hit, I found I was actually excited about the prospect of destruction and mayhem."

"Whoa — that's honest!"

"I looked up the quote from Science and Health about being overwhelmed 'by sin in [one's] own thoughts' (page 366:24). Once I faced that squarely — on the basis of the Golden Rule — I was able to work in Science."

"We have to be careful not to blame anybody."

"I agree. There's even a theory floating around right wing religious circles that New Orleans is a center for sin and needed destruction."

"Let's handle that right now. There's only one cause and effect. It's God, good. Sin, including self-righteous religiosity, is not a cause of anything."

"The only sin is belief in matter or dualism. All of us are dealing with that one."

"Is there a kind of swashbuckling devil-may-care attitude in New Orleans? They knew they were living on the edge and that made life more vivid."

"That would apply to lots of places — San Francisco, Los Angeles, Tokyo. And New York. Don't we live with our terrorist possibilities with a sort of panache?"

"I certainly see it in me — to be perfectly honest! And I'd like to renounce it."

"But not with human will. Use Science."

"Let's see. Well, there's no God of the type we've been trained to worship. God's a word for the sum total of perfect ideas interpenetrating through time and space. Since we're actually it — Life, God — how could we possibly be separated from it?"

"And that's that! I don't understand it — but we'll trust the work has been done."

"Well, I do understand it — and it's very fine. I'd put it this way: If I'm happy in the belief of things, it's like a sugar high. Watch out below."

"I think we can be happy if it's from reflecting God."

"As in heaven, so on earth. As in infinity, so in finiteness. We can have a finite concept anchored in infinity and it'll be fine."

"And if it's outgrown?"

"It'll disappear to be replaced by some finer concept. We can have what Mrs. Eddy calls painless progress."

"Do you suppose the people of New Orleans were ready for a new concept?"

"I certainly wouldn't ask that of someone suffering through the problem."

"Oh heavens no! But I think we can explore it here."

"It's very painful progress if they just want a new place to live."

"For those going to Houston, did you know that it's been voted the country's #1 large city where African-Americans can thrive? Maybe they'll stay and prosper."

"You sound like Barbara Bush doing her cameo of Marie Antoinette at the Astrodome."

"Such a sweet lady to take time out from her busy rounds to bless the crowds bussed in from the east. I can see where George's compassion comes from."

"Right. Wasn't he kind to Trent Lott — bucking him up after his beach house was wrecked.?"

"I want to make a few points about honesty. I've known many people who've recovered from alcoholism based on the principle of rigorous honesty. Here's a quote from the Alcoholics Anonymous Big Book: 'Those who do not recover are people...who are constitutionally incapable of being honest with themselves.' And here are a couple of quotes from the chapter on Prayer in Science and Health '[#cit=3273#]' and '[#cit=3274#]'"

"It's hard to know whether I'm being honest. I think I am — and then I realize I'm not saying what's true."

"I don't think we have to tell all — particularly if it would harm another or rupture a relationship."

"In treating the situation in New Orleans with the looting we can know that man is honest."

"You can only control your own honesty."

"Yes — but if I extend infinitely and eternally, what is the limit on my honesty? I've been attacked in the street a couple of times and had to see the divinity of the others right away. A big part of my desperate treatment was proclaiming their innate honesty."

"Let's make sure we're seeing the innate honesty of everyone involved — residents, police, troops, merchants and construction companies."

"Don't forget people in the towns where the evacuees land. Man cannot be dishonest nor gouge."

"Let's be aware that the white media are harping on black looting. We need to work in Science to protect us from any dishonesty, including white corporate looting."

"This whole horrible tragedy has ripped the mask off American hypocrisy about how we treat each other."

"What'll happen to New Orleans in the end?"

"It'll become a theme park. Businesses and the main populations will move. They'll carry New Orleans culture out to the world."

"I've been working on integrity, which is a synonym of honesty. It means 'untouched.' Every person, thing and city as idea has integrity — it interpenetrates all others but does not touch them. As concepts anchored in their corresponding idea, they have the integrity of not being invaded or impinged upon."

"A friend asked me whether I'd built on unsafe ground. I thought for a minute and replied I had indeed, to the extent I believed in matter."

"Did you get more specific?"

"Yes — my usual concern with romantic obsessions."

"How's that going?"

"Pretty well. At least I'm seeing how life-draining they are and how they separate me from people. I can't get any real intimacy."

"Sounds like big strides in understanding."

"Yes — but I need more involvement with God in this process. More integration of the human and the divine."

"There's that integrity idea again."

"Integrity shares roots with 'integer' and 'entire.' So you can be all — you can be the Love that never heard of lack."

"We still have a little time if someone else wants to share."

"I do. Yesterday I was working on the computer and somehow banged my finger in such a way it came out of its socket. I couldn't reach my regular practitioner, so I had to buckle down with the Truth. I couldn't read either, but I just knew God is Truth and Love. In a couple of minutes the finger snapped back in place."

"Excellent work. Anyone else?"

"Well, I've been working in Science to get a better sense of substance. First, I've tried to find genuine gratitude for every, even small, evidence of good. As I was feeling strongly in the flow of divine perfection one day last week, a couple of women called for appointments. They wanted exactly the same time slots, but by seeing the orderly unfoldment of good, we were able to accommodate them both in sort of staggered slots. Interestingly they were both amazed at my low fee and practically shouted at me to raise my prices. I think I will!"

"I've been feeling a lot of condemnation for the slow pace of recovery efforts in New Orleans. This has interfered with my work in Science for the situation. Finally today I saw that my anger and agitation are only harmful in the same measure as my endorsement and happiness over the efforts. My work in Science is beyond the extremes of human opinion. I must know and live the safety and perfection of everyone and everything."

"Okay — now we're out of time and we need a topic for the next two meetings."

"I've been thinking about transition in relation to the people of New Orleans and the country generally."

"Many people refer to death as a transition. We'll be hearing lots about that in coming days and weeks."

"We've also got some personal transitions going on with members."

"So — can we agree on Transition as our topic?"

"Yes."

"Fine."