Outreach no. 203

              OUTREACH OUTREA the newsletter of we 7 qematd&a etuwiifr kak lak T saeptaaae sfrititaai mmel ucleutcmclut wtcwaumcat MARCUS BACH founder NO 203 THE LETTER dear friend of the fellowship As most of you know every year in august we remember our FSU family with a special CHANCE DAY greeting card it is yours to keep or send to a friend who crossed your path and left a special blessing or impression on you A fellow spirit A kindred soul an unexpected stranger who became a companion along the way an unlooked unlocked for someone who influenced your thinking filled a need or simply appeared out of the blue to touch and enrich your life we introduced this idea in OUTREACH no 101 and gave credit to the THREE PRINCES OF SERENDIP you who are new to FSU may not know the parable or allegory of these three legendary figures who gave rise to the word serendipity but that is where chance day was born wrapped in the swaddling clothes ofmy ofay of my book THE WORLD OF serendipity someday perhaps when politics simmer down when nations learn to live in peace and when the good earth becomes the sensitive expression of all life there will be a national observance of chance day a day when we will pause and remember the person or persons who have reached out to us or we to them reached out without any thought of gain or self acquisition but simply because of an impulse or a feeling of oneness nearness affinity As I 1 write this there is something in the air here in the socalled so called city of angels that may have a direct bearing on this hoped for utopia the olympics are coming to town by the time this newsletter reaches you this sprawling empire called greater los angeles will be flagbedecked flag bedecked and thronged with people from nations all over the globe to be sure the soviet union and some of its allies will not be here the US USA A was not there when the games were staged in russia in 1980 tit for tat blow for blow pride for pride sting for sting or whatever the flags of 142 countries will be unfurled over stadiums office buildings and the nerve center of air travel called LAX Is it possible that just by chance this defection both by us during the previous olympics and by the USSR currently could result in some outfront out front thinking about a new approach to global understanding and intercultural inter cultural fellowship above and beyond political ideologies for example just prior to the 1980 olympics lorena and I 1 had as a guest a college student from hawaii he was a runner and had trained hard and conscientiously for the upcoming games he was interested in improving his athletic capabilities by getting a stronger hold on a positive mental set of mind what I 1 need it he confessed to me is more faith in myself and in gods direction in my life