Theos-Talk Archives (November 1995 Message tl00021)

To Paul & everyone else on this list

I'd like to know who else around here feels or has felt at one time
that they've been excluded by Theosophists. I've now conversed with 03
of you & I'm a 4th. Between the '80ies when I quit being President
of a Lodge and now that I'm part of theos-l & am also being better
accepted in Wheaton for some reason I felt terribly excluded.
It was a time in my life when I was trying to cope with everything
that went cockeyed. And everything went cockeyed that could possibly
have. I could have used some brotherly moral support - like we're with you.
I remember getting a sympathetic card from Shirley Nicholson to
the effect that "My God is all that happening to you? I'm sorry."
That was at least something.
And sometimes when they weren't too busy I could communicate with
Lakshmi Narayan or Marie Minor in the Olcott Library. To all other Theosophists
I seem to have been a non-person. It was my good fortune to have come
across one Theosophist named Harry Van Gelder at that time.
When I first got to him he told me "I don't know where to start".
That's how bad I was... on all fronts. Well he did start & continue
& I learned to follow his advice which was very theosophical
& little by little I began to prosper. & thank goodness for
Harry & Marie because nobody else seemed to care a fig about me. I
had Harry to heal me & teach me & Marie to talk to.
To other Theosophists it seems I was an outsider. To me I was a
Theosophist & to be rejected on all sides by fellow Theosophists hurt ...
a lot.

Paul let me tell you I know exactly how you feel. I decided to
stick to my theosophical books that time & forget about the people.
I don't blame you for going over to the ARE if you feel more comfortable there.
It's something that just occurred to me this morning. Wheaton has got
to be more member friendly.

Liesel