Article March 10, 1986 Issue

Circles of habit or path of Truth?

ANDREA B. HERTLEIN

The processionary caterpillar is a creature that lives most of its first life stage by following blindly. These caterpillars usually feed on pine needles and travel in a long procession. As many as three hundred have been observed in a single line stretching nearly forty feet. In an experiment, French naturalist Jean Henri Fabre succeeded in establishing a procession around the rim of a very large plant pot. The lead caterpillar began following the last one, forming a circular procession! They blindly followed for seven days. Eventually hunger and exhaustion caused enough caterpillars to deviate from the path so that the procession was broken.

Most human beings unthinkingly accept or follow the view that existence is mortal. Many blindly follow material convention, habit, custom, which eventually lead to some form of defeat. But there is a way to break the repetitious circle of material thought and heal the ills it produces.

Nobody wants to be considered a follower in the sense of imitator. But we all do need something lasting and good to follow and adhere to—some central focus for our lives. The ideas or spiritual truths continuously emanating from God, divine Mind, are precisely the something we all need for productive, satisfying lives. These ideas are real and vital and are always available. Christ Jesus, who constantly expressed ideas from God, said, "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: and I give unto them eternal life."^{John 10:27, 28.}

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