It was April 6 and it was starting to feel a lot like spring—time for our annual children’s celebration. Held in previous years in a smaller setting nearby, this year it was held on the lawns of White Horse Court to accommodate the 300 or so neighbors, friends, and their children who joined us. Children played a whole gamut of games straight out of a Norman Rockwell painting—sack races, three-legged races, egg-balancing races, baseball, even an old-fashioned egg hunt.Children and their parents were offered an array of artistic activities. The spring-basket-making table overflowed with camellias, roses, cala lilies, freesia, and sweet pea cut by

neighborhood gardeners, plus silk ribbon and wicker baskets. Ex-perienced face painters captured the images their adult and child clientele asked for, from elves and flowers to birds and dino-saurs. One table offered young artists a chance to create one-of-a-kind colored eggs, and a gypsy tent invited people in for hand decorating.Guests spread a patchwork of blankets over the lawn near the sumptuous potluck food tables, eat-ing and chatting with people on neighboring blankets. Later people gathered to listen to live music and

watch an engaging puppet show. While leaving, one neighbor commented,

“Every day should be like this!”

Sufism ReorientedNeighborhood Newsletter

Spring 2008

Spring picnic at White Horse Court

When we talked to our neighbors about building our new sanctuary, it sparked curiosity about Sufism Reoriented and its members. This newsletter is our way of sharing more about us.

Why this newsletter?

Fabled Union Square in San Francisco was the setting for the first public performance together of Sufism Reoriented’s Consortium of the Arts Chorus and members of the Meher Schools Children’s Chorus, on December 22. On a bright winter day, hundreds of holiday shoppers, Meher Schools parents, relatives, and friends listened spellbound as their joyous program of love-themed songs filled the square.The concert featured soloist soprano Hilary Hogan. Hilary, now 25, attended The Meher Schools where her father, David Hogan, a well-known composer of liturgical music and an acclaimed tenor, was director of music. He was also director of the Consortium of the Arts Chorus. After her father passed away, Hilary’s mother, Terry Hogan Johnson, took over as director of both choruses.

The audience was so enthused by the original performance that the choruses and Hilary were invited to perform again on the afternoon of Sunday, May 4. The two choruses, with gifted singers ages seven to 70, will sing timeless messages of universal love, the awakening of the heart, and the fundamental unity of life. This spring concert will also include a father-son hip-hop dance duet featuring a Meher Schools fourth grader and his physician father. Per-formances will be at 2 p.m. and at 3 p.m. If you get this newsletter in time, please join us. The concerts are free.With the promise of May weather, the concert should provide one of those uplifting San Fran-cisco days when our gratitude for living in the beautiful Bay Area soars.

Union Square performance

People love to hear young children sing, especially songs of reverence and beauty. On May 3 the Meher Schools Children’s Chorus, consisting of students from second through fifth grade, will be singing again at Broadway Plaza. The music is

all original, upbeat, and some-times humorous. Most import-antly, it expresses the prin-ciples of the school, with songs about working and play-ing together and friendship. Performances will be at 1 p.m. and 2 p.m. at the fountain across from Nordstrom.

Broadway Plaza Celebration

To thousands of students and alumni and their fam-ilies, she is “Miss Ellen,” the principal they visit and update about their changing lives. “One of the most satisfying aspects of my 33 years as principal of The Meher Schools is seeing that our students come back. Sometimes they return as trained teachers who want to work in the school they love so much. I’m also excited that our alumni bring their children here. Now we have a second generation joining us.” The school attracts a diverse population, welcoming people from all over the country and the world. (A relatively small percentage of the students come from Sufi families). The school has never advertised; people hear about the program through word-of-mouth and through the

school’s website, www.meherschools.org. Ellen, who serves on the Diablo Valley College Early

Childhood Education Advisory Board, is also thrilled that so many families with children are moving into the Saranap area and enrolling at The Meher Schools. She says happily, “These young families are allowing us to operate as a neighborhood school.”

Carol Weyland Conner was appointed the murshida, or spiritual teacher, of Sufism Reoriented by her predecessors, Dr. James MacKie and Ivy O. Duce, in 2001. She is a 1967 graduate of UC Berkeley and holds a doctorate in psychology from Catholic University in Washington, D.C. She taught in the Department of Child Health and Development at George Washington University School of Medicine before going into private practice. At the top of Murshida’s list of special interests is child-hood education. Her parents were both educators, and she grew up with a profound respect for the importance of children’s education. “It is a joy to see the preschool and elementary age children thrive at our Meher Schools in an atmosphere of love, security, and rich, positive stimulation for their growth. It gives me joy to see these delightful children blossom and excel in the happy environment of our school.”

Ellen Evans

Carol Conner

Students at USF recently posted a video of Dr. Pete Wells’s rap lecture, “Call Me Fractal,” on YouTube. Rapping is only one of the ways that math professor Pete plays with concepts he finds fascinating to make them “accessible” to students.

For instance, he performs puppet shows on group theory, and he gets students out of the class-room to hunt natural fractals at Lands’ End or to analyze the math in artwork at the de Young Museum. Pete collaborates with

scientists interna-tionally in the study of hypercomputing—exploring what computers might achieve in the far future. Every Thursday at noon he hosts a free lecture at USF on new topics in compute r science.

Pete Wells

Who are we?

As a math teacher at Car-ondelet High School, an all-girl

Catholic school in Concord, Lori Humph-reys impressed her students with her high standards and her availability to help them with their homework, even late at night. Lori felt passionately about young women succeeding at math. She was also one of the founders of the Saranap Community Association (form-erly Saranap Homeowners Association). Lori loved to sing and was a member of Sufism Reoriented’s Consortium of the Arts Chorus. In spite of being in the final stages of leukemia, she participated in the chorus’s December concert on Union Square. Lori passed away on February 1. Her husband Matt, son Daniel, and other family members and friends were at her side.

Lori Humphreys

If you see a powder-blue ’67 Volkswagen Beetle tooling around the neighborhood, it’s probably Tim Tacker’s. Tim took the offer of a free VW “bug” and refurbished it top to bottom. The coordinator of buildings and grounds at The Meher Schools, Tim also drives a green Ford pickup that’s a familiar sight around the Saranap. After earning a degree in industrial education, Tim worked for several years in the construction industry. Then, 18 years ago, a friend asked him to help with “a few projects” at the school—and he’s still there, working hard. Known affectionately as “Mr. Tim,” his job provides constant challenges, but being around the vibrant atmosphere of the children is what makes it a special experience. “When I see little moments of kindness between children or teachers and students, it real-ly touches me.”

Tim Tacker

Duncan Knowles’s knowledge of the history of the Bay Area has led him to appointments to community task forces by the mayors of San Francisco and San Mateo; he has appeared on CNN, the History Channel, CNBC, and NPR. A retired senior vice president of Bank of America and former president of the Tice Valley Homeowners Association, Duncan has always cherished time with his family. A widower with four grown children, he shares a condo with his daughter Mary, 37, who has Downs syndrome. Recently he and Mary have been enjoying ballroom dancing together. Of Mary he says, “Though disabled, she is a giant in love and kindness. She inspires me every moment of the day and brings me so much happiness.”

Duncan Knowles

Most Boy Scout leaders end their careers when their sons graduate from the program. Not so with Lilli Remer. Although Royce, the youngest of her three sons, became an Eagle Scout in 2003, Lilli is still going strong with 25 years of service behind her. She received the highest award for service to the Aklan District Council, the Silver Beaver award. Lilli says the joy of scouting has been watching boys grow and develop—about 500 so far. She also contributes to the lives of young people through her “day job” as a research scientist invest-igating how to prevent drug and alcohol problems. Lilli gives life to the saying “Kids are our most important investment.”

Lilli Remer

After 33 years as a Saranap resident, Stephanie Oswald still has more to say about her passion for her house and neighborhood than about any of the very different careers she has explored in her busy life. She has worked as an attorney, an assistant pastry chef, and a software tester, and is currently chief financial officer for The Meher Schools. Stephanie sees her professional life as a backdrop to her love of being at home and enjoying activities with friends. “This is the neighborhood where I set up a home with my husband and brought home two babies.” Stephanie likes that

she lives on a street where people walk with their children. Her other passion is cooking. And she even enjoys taking charge of food preparation for special events for 70 or more. “As with anything,” she says, “it’s quite doable once you get used to it.”

Stephanie Oswald

Marrying into a family with a Downs syndrome child reinforced Jacquie Allen’s belief that people with developmental disabilities can become contributing members of society. With a degree in education and a background in nutrition, Jacquie joined the staff of Las Trampas, a Lafayette program serving the developmentally disabled. She and her clients started a business called Rapid Rolls, baking muffins and brownies and selling them with coffee at the Walnut Creek BART station. Now Jacquie is program director at Futures Explored, an agency in Lafayette that provides work- and life-skills training for adults with developmental disabilities, which has opened a catering company called Huckleberry Café To Go, delivering fresh gourmet boxed lunches and party platters to homes and businesses. Jacquie has two grown children and two grand-children, with another one on the way!

As a retired airplane mechanic, Nick Remer still likes to find out what makes

things tick. Recently he designed a model steam engine; he’s now

building a clock. Next year he plans to do a major renovation on his family’s new home on Juanita, a few blocks from where they live now on Island Court. He plans to do the work himself, including the plumbing. Nick doesn’t mind that

not one of his three grown sons enjoys his enthusiasm for designing

and building structures and ma-chines. “None of them are interested in

mechanical things, but that’s fine with me. They’re artists and computer wizzes. Their interests have actually expanded my life greatly. If they liked to do exactly what I’m interested in, it might be boring.”

Nick Remer

Jacquie Allen

By Pascal Kaplan, Ph.D.

A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to meet with one of our Saranap neighbors, a minister at a church in Walnut Creek, to review the plans for our new sanc-tuary. I knew that as a pastor, he would understand the wide range of issues that a church must consider when starting a building project. We sat outside in a shaded, glen-like setting at his church. In the course of our conversation, the rever-end asked me why we do not have any signs at our current church building on Boulevard Way. I explained that since we don’t proselytize or seek new members, we’ve never thought about publicizing ourselves, even with signage. He then asked what defined a member of Sufism Reoriented. I said that Sufism Re-oriented is a com-munity of people who have reached a phase of their life when they care more about deep-ening their love for God and expressing that love in quiet service in the world than they care about any-thing else. 

I then mentioned that there are essentially five pre-requisites for membership in Sufism Reoriented:

Being drawn to the life and teachings of the Indian spiritual figure Meher Baba and wishing to study with the spiritual teacher of Sufism Reoriented

A commitment to try to be 100 percent honest in all things, but with kindness, that is, not to use honesty as a hammer

Abstinence from use of illicit or hallucinatory drugsAbstinence from sex outside of marriageProductive and responsible engagement in the

world, including having completed one’s edu-cational training, being self-sufficient, having established financial balance, and using one’s skills to be of service to others. When I finished discussing these points, the

minister urged me to add this list to the bro-chure we had prepared to explain to our neighbors our need for a new church build-ing. He said that these statements are ones that anyone could understand and

support and that, even though we don’t proselytize, it would be helpful to share

these principles more widely so our neighbors would understand more about us. So with thanks

for his suggestion, I am taking this opportunity todo so.

Diane Cobb, one of Sufism Re-oriented’s best-known artists, will open an exhibit of her work at Searchlight bookstore (at The Meher Schools, 999 Leland Dr., Lafayette) on May 31. Diane’s work is repre-sented in about 200 private and public collections in the United States and Europe. She is also a long-time art teacher at The Meher Schools. Diane describes her style as “realism with heart.” She says her Searchlight show will include land-scapes inspired by the beautiful hills

that surround our area, works of “impressionistic” realism, and even surrealism. It will also contain por-traits of children. “I’m so struck by the beauty of children and the sur-prisingly individual ways their beauty appears.” Diane’s last show at Searchlight, several years ago, motivated people to get out of bed early and line up outside the Searchlight door hours before the show began. Searchlight is open Tuesdays from 7 to 9 p.m., Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., and Sundays from 1 to 5:30 p.m.

Life as a member of Sufism Reoriented

Diane Cobb exhibit opens May 31

“Realism with heart”