In Search of They

THOMAS ALAN WALDMAN

We say it all the time: " 'They' say ...." "What do 'they' want?" "Who do 'they' think they are?"

Much more to the point: Who do I think "they" are?

Are "they" the ones who have opposite beliefs, opinions, or lifestyles from ours? Not necessarily. Many of my most critical thoughts are directed at fellow Christian Scientists. Why? Because most of those I deal with, on a daily basis, happen to be Christian Scientists. This one talks more of the Christ than she practices. That one is proud. Others appear to be impatient, sloppy, superficial, condescending.

So, then, who are "they"?
Everyone except me?

No, not even that. Because alone in my private Peniel (wrestling with whom? Why, with me, of course), I see that each of the qualities I'm critical of in others is in myself. H'm. Let's back up a bit to where I said, "Many of my most critical thoughts ...."

Unwittingly I was claiming as my own a lot of suggestions really foreign to my true nature. They are as alien to my pure identity, which is mine as an expression of the one good, God, as are the traits of which I am so critical. "Foreign?" "Alien?" So that's who and what "they" are! Mrs. Eddy, who discovered Christian Science, tells us: "In Mark, ninth chapter and thirty-eighth verse, it reads:'Master, we saw one casting out devils in thy name.' Here is an assertion indicating the existence of more than one devil; and by omitting the first letter, the name of his satanic majesty is found to be evils, apparent wrong traits, that Christ, Truth, casts out."^{Miscellaneous Writings, p. 191;}

Then the next question arises: Where do evils come from? If we believe the Bible—and I do—we accept its statement: "God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good."^{Gen. 1:31;} There's no way you could call those negative suggestions even slightly good. Logic, then, argues that "they" can have no creator, no origin, and therefore no reality.

That being the case, I don't have to get rid of "them." You can't annihilate something that has only a fabulous existence. It's like the bogeyman under the bed of the frightened child I used to be. I didn't have to shoot the bogeyman or set my dog on him. I got rid of him when I stopped believing in him. Simple, and effective. "They" can't abide not being believed in.

So each time I make progress in not believing one of the unlovely qualities that's tried to say it's part of my personality I begin to see less of it in the personality of the one I'm criticizing. And then I get down to it and admit that none of us really has a material personality at all.

We do each have our separate, unique identity, though. And what does Mrs. Eddy say of this identity? Speaking of man, she writes: "He is the compound idea of God, including all right ideas; the generic term for all that reflects God's image and likeness; the conscious identity of being as found in Science, in which man is the reflection of God, or Mind, and therefore is eternal; that which has no separate mind from God; that which has not a single quality underived from Deity; that which possesses no life, intelligence, nor creative power of his own, but reflects spiritually all that belongs to his Maker."^{Science and Health, p. 475 .} Well, since man's spiritual identity is in reality universally true for all, we are all there is, there is no "they"! There never was. So the next time you hear: "What do 'they' want, anyway?" just answer silently, "What they've always wanted—to be believed in. But I won't do it!"

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January 15, 1977

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