There were 24 members present at this first official meeting of our new Club President, John Thomas, who has already developed a very solid stroke on the Rotary bell! We had 3 guests present, all invited by Ned Meisner. John Ford gave the thought for the day.
Announcements: Kristin Leahy reported that her Habitat for Humanities trip will be underway soon and she thanked all those Rotarians who have supported this project. John Thomas reminded everyone of the Winnetka July 4th parade to take place on the morning of the 4th, followed by a “Blues Brothers” concert at 8:00 pm and the fireworks at 9:15. Bob Baker announced that Denny Lauer and Fred Schwimmer both received the Paul Harris contribution award “plus 2” and that Robert Mardirossian will be receiving a Paul Harris award at the next meeting he attends. Rich Lalley said that 32 Rotarians contributed a total of about $10,000 this last year to the Rotary Foundation.
Happy Bucks: Ned contributed in thanking his 3 friends for attending the meeting as his guests. Keith Reed contributed in honor of the July 4th holiday which gives everyone the opportunity to think about the greatness of this nation. (He distributed a list of 10 little known facts about July 4th.)
Tony Kambich handled the Dig and Grin duties with stories about Vladimir Putin as a chauffeur, Art Linkletter in a nursing home and Tony’s generous “seed” gift for the Winnetka community swimming pool!
Guest Speaker: The speaker was Edward Price, an author currently working on a six volume work entitled The Divine Curriculum (How God’s Plan is Revealed in the World’s Great Religions). His basic premise is that all of creation is a classroom and that God has been teaching human beings since they have walked upon the earth through Divine Educators. These educators span a period of about 5100 years and include Krishna, Abraham, Moses, Zoroaster, Buddha, Jesus, Muhammad, Bab and Baha u llah. Questions covered in his book are—What has God been teaching? Towards what goals and purposes? What/who is God? Why and what the Creator creates? How are the Divine Educators to be understood and how should humans respond to their summons? Mr. Price believes these Educators are helping humans to have the capacity to know, love and choose God, with a soul, and able to carry forward civilization. Although humans have divergent, contradictory understandings of what the Divine Educators are teaching, the Educators are not confused and rely on their textbooks (i.e. Scriptures) to find the unity and continuity among them. Mr. Price said that he was raised as an Orthodox Jew, then became an atheist before being inspired by the Bahai faith. He treats all the Divine Educators with equal adoration and cites from all their Scriptures, so as to let them speak with one Voice.
