1999-05-07-Ante Up

Session

Dialogue

GORMAN: Gorman here.

Group: Hi, Gorman.

GORMAN: Hey, crew. What's going on?

Rachel: I'm sitting here thinking we didn't bring anything to the table.

GORMAN: Oh, but you did! You brought Nathaniel. How are you, lad?

Nathaniel: Good. Good.

GORMAN: It's good to be with you, good to see you, as it were. Indeed we've got a full house. The team is filled and ready to go. Alright, then, that's a mere minor detail that will fall in line, having made the decision. How wonderful we can now get on to the next decision.

Happily, a number of decisions have been made, and I will give you all credit for that, since all of you have had to make certain inherent decisions in order for us all to have come thus far. So I will congratulate you for your thought processes along the lines of progression and productivity, for thinking at all, which is, frankly, encouraging these days. (Laughter) But I will not let up on my prodding for we have only just begun.

There is another element of this meeting this evening that I want to call your attention to and that is I am going to also address, in keeping with our community base here, the extended community of the corporation Harp of God and it's subsidiaries including the Journal and the broadcasting company and indeed the fiction department as well, for we have begun a project that extends at least that far and beyond and it might as well be notated for the record that we are embarked on a configuration that will serve in various relationship functions for some time to come.

The phrase “ante up” is one I will bring to your attention.

In your world you know that a game of poker is not nearly as much fun when you play for matchsticks as when you play for cash. There is just something magical about cash money that gives the game an element of pizazz that was not possible without it. The implication here being that this something that I'm looking for on the table is something that has a meaning to you that indicates an element of pizazz that could mean the difference between pleasure and pain or poverty and riches. It has to be meaningful, even if only two pennies, you see. It's the symbolism that I'm looking for.

When Jesus talked to his followers, he one time had a little talk about "Counting the Cost" and I'm going to bring the same thing up and that has to do with counting the cost of staying in this card game. If you are serious about playing, then you need to dig deep into your symbolic pocket and pull up something that is indicative of the difference between pleasure and pain, between poverty and riches. It has to be significant. If this is a mere walk in the park, or if you're just along for the ride, then you'll not be putting in your true gusto, your oomph, your essence, and I don't think anyone of us want to feel short-changed.

Angus: I was just reminded of something someone said, "What are you willing to give up for what you want?" This basically determines the kind of passion and desire you get into something with.

GORMAN: If you have a purpose, a goal, a commitment, it can be assumed then that you have all put your motives and intentions out there to an equitable degree, to such a degree that you can do business with one another and have a meaningful relationship. You could have children. You could create. You could build things. You could bring reality up to a new level of functioning. You could create Light and Life on Urantia. These are possible because of the essence of you that you are willing to put on the table.

Now I am not interested in your largess or your grandiosity. I don't care if your daddy has a bank full of money. I am not concerned about the quantity of your commitment but rather the quality of your commitment, for quality then is something that is recognizable by the very nature of your initial relationship with the original I AM. In other words, is this for fun or is this an extension of your spiritual experience? If it is an extension of your spiritual experience, it has a reality to it I can support and you will find worthy.

All of you have sufficiently healthy ego identities to want to do something that will garner the respect of your peers, your intimate peers, and the results of your mutuality will benefit those who are the recipients of your product, your effort. It has eternal value.

Now I am not suggesting that we break down into psalms and hosannas when we meet, but I am urging you all to bring to this capital good idea as much devotion and integrity as you bring to other aspects of your religious life.

I am banking on you to be able to work as effectively together as you play effectively together.

There are some minor details to be worked out like the disciplines of a schedule and the expenses of some post-it notes, a phone call or two, but I believe once this starts rolling it will coalesce very nicely. I commend the same advisement to Marty on his angle, and the others as well. Angus: That seems to be one of the dilemmas that we're faced with right now. it seems so almost political.

GORMAN: Of course it's political! You are social creatures and you all have a different perspective, but you all have worthy goals. Now granted, the goals that you are aspiring to and we in this board room are aspiring to are more specialized, have become more focused, perhaps, than the general community at large, and yet that is not to say that there are not other effective units of functioning in other communities.

I will call to your mind the efforts of the members of Nathaniel's community which has already produced product and brought about effect. It is also true that there have been visual tapes made and all manner of productivity in terms of proselytizing our beliefs. These are lessons the entire movement is learning. I just get to do it with you guys and we get to put it on the record. It's a good idea, I think, to put it on the record … for posterity. In your rocking chair days you will perhaps enjoy remembering these early sessions of learning how to ante up when you were fearful of success and afraid to stand alone in your creative decisions. Won't it appear amusing when you have much experience under your belt to remember these early days and our discourses?

Closing

Thanks for the Board Meeting.