Are You Here To Be A Teacher? 237reminiscing about old times and the things we had done together, and at
one point he said, “Do you remember when we were lying out on the
front lawn looking at the stars, and I was talking about trading bubble
gum cards, and you looked over at me and said ‘Hey Jack, did you ever
wonder why we’re here?’ We were probably like six years old.” I did
remember asking him that, but that would’ve been like me to do so,
because I was in pursuit of that answer for many years.
I am a scout. I remember the moment I realized that. I could
write books on what that means, but the bottom line is that’s it. My job is
to go out and explore and have experiences and gather information and
bring it back to people and offer it. I say, here’s a direct sense, here’s
how to get from here to there, and it may not be the way, but it’s a way,
and I offer it to you. As long as I’m doing that, I’m doing pretty well and
making a contribution. 30 years later, people still find it to be of value.
So that’s who I am.
What events or series of events led to your discovery?
I used to live in Phoenix in 1972, and when I lived there I would go up to
Sedona, Arizona. At the time, Sedona was only about three thousand
people, today it’s about fifty thousand or so. There was this little artist
community in the red rock country. It was very beautiful.
On my way to Sedona off on the right hand side up on a rock was
this building. To me it looked like it grew right out of the rock and there
was nothing else around. I said what the heck is that? I turned off the
road and drove in the direction of where it was. There was a parking lot
right below and a walkway that went right up to the building, which was
a church. I walked in and nobody was there. It was completely empty.
There was a Bible open on the podium.
I wandered around this beautiful place, and I read a plaque that
said an artist, not an architect, designed it. I took some pictures, and I sat
there quietly by myself in some form of contemplation and introspection
and had a great experience. I was blown away by the place. I was curious.
I was like, what is this place, who did it, why did they do it, how did they
do it, what’s it for and who comes here? That was in 1972, and I went
along on my way and I forgot about it.
Flash forward to 1978, and I’m with my friends and we have a
free day. We’d all been working hard and traveling and I thought we
should just have a good time and maybe drive up to the Grand Canyon. I
said, “You know, I used to live here. Let’s go to Oak Creek in Sedona.