Half day in Boston

When I start lecturing I realize how writing a daily diary takes a backseat. Where to begin?

The half day I spent in Boston at The Mother Church was very productive. While waiting for my friend from college and now head manager of The Christian Science Monitor and all the magazines including the Heralds, I saw Kari buying lunch. We talked for 5 minutes and I told her about a Greek lecture in Florida that I'd heard about at my last lecture, that she didn't realize someone had scheduled for her. Then I mentioned that none of us knew we were supposed to send her a copy of our radio interviews. She was stunned.

I'm going to send her a copy of the Milwaukee radio interview. Lasted an hour and 5 people came to the lecture because of it. They gave away 6 Science and Healths on the radio (my recommendation) and another 3 at the talk. One other person purchased theirs.

John laughingly offered me a job as head of marketing for the Monitor. I told him I'd do everything I could for him but it's clear my path is healing not marketing. He caught every idea I shared with him. Said it might take him 6-8 months to institute the changes. I'm praying that the change on the Home Forum page works. I recommended that 2 articles a week be edited by Clare for 1st person, mentioning God, prayer, faith, etc. I told him the Home Forum page should be more Christian. I think he caught the vision - news was the rest of the paper unbiased and professional. The Home Forum page is for the family, home being the kingdom of heaven and how can you talk about the kingdom of heaven without God?

Saw Julie M. She invited me to the Sentinel weekly meeting. Good to meet all the editors, some of which are very young and new. I hadn't met the new head editor, Ingrid. That was helpful .

Went to TMCYouth and talked to Adriana about her work in Africa. Bill decided to offer my lecture prep on Youth and Youthful Thinking at the Chicago Youth Summit on Friday night before the main event. I also got him to contact Principia College and inform the students. Nothing had been done there unbelievably.

Talked with everyone in the Lecture Dept. Met with Betty in BOE. We talked about the Galapagos actually. Met with Enrique and got my deadline for the article for the Herald. Leide head editor for all the foreign language Heralds snagged me and was very upset talking about imminent plans for the Heralds. I promised to talk about it. Prayer is in order and I also need to see what is really going on not what Leide thinks is going on. I can't just go stomping into some dept and area uninvited. Jonathan has invited me to talk about the Monitor with him. I'll let it lay for awhile and then approach him on the Heralds.

The Monitor had the first of a series of "town meetings" for their staff to talk about probably doing away with the daily newspaper. I went. Interesting but it's clear they are not making the decisions. The decisions are being made for them. Marshall afterward asked who I was and what I was doing there. That's what I get for taking notes. Met head editor too. I didn't pull rank and didn't mention I was a teacher, just a Christian Scientist. With Marshall I mentioned lecturer and that I knew his mother. What a thing to say to a 45 year old, but it worked.

Full afternoon. Jonathan said he was still thinking about and working on the ideas I gave him on our last phone conversation. He's receptive to new ideas. He's instituted already some of what we talked about. He's very quick. Gets things in a moment. Perhaps our informal talks will make a significant impact. I'd rather work behind the scenes. That way I can keep focus on healing but still help. He asked if I knew anyone else like me, that was funny. Actually the answer was no, but I'll keep my eyes open.