I am writing this down in my journal. My mom thought it would be good to express my feeling here. Well here it goes. My name is Matt Harding and I have to move away from my friends to New Haven, Washington. At least there is a beach here. But I don’t know anybody here. here is just a small town of 35,000. There’s a mall, old downtown and alot of vacant land. Besides the beach there is not much to look at in the town. On my first day, woke up and could smell the bakery in the downtown. Its building dominates this little town. I went to school and met a new friend, Ed Harrington. He introduced himself to me and opened up doors for me. He did not appear to be the popular type, but by association automatically I fit in to the school’s social hierarchy. But that’s not why I started to take this journal seriously. Its because of the neckless Ed wore, a lightning bolt.
When I asked Ed about it, that’s when my world changed. “It’s a symbol of order over chaos. It’s a concept that humanity has always held.”
“You mean like Zeus and his lightning bolts?”
“Yes, but it’s not just in Greek mythology. You know, you should really play basketball with us. I can talk about it more then. Don’t be late for your first day of class.”
“Ok sure, where at?”
“It’s called the Sacred Grove, I’ll text you later.”
I went through school like normal. I have to get used to it but all schools are nothing more than buildings and students and teachers. It wasn’t that much different than the other schools I went to. The fact that I was getting along with the students as a newcomer, made it that much more enjoyable.
“Did you make any friend hun?”, my mom said rolling down the passenger window just about to pick me up.
“Yeah actually, I’m supposed to play basketball today.”
“See. I told you it was a great place. Dad got a great job and we can enjoy it up here on the beach. I told you that things would be great.”
Driving to the place was easy to find. I thought the Groves would be some sort of park, a mall, or some sort of establishment where you had to pay money. It was a compound. When we pulled up to the property, it was up on a hill. The property was surrounded by Olive Trees. On top of the hill there was ample parking and various buildings. There was a large hall or church with the same lightning symbol but more elaborate. It was a lightning bolt striking a snake, this time. My mom dropped me off and waved.
“Call me when you’re done. Have fun.”
Ed walked over to me. “I hope you don’t get overwhelmed by this place. Its really a great place to play basketball.”
“So what is this place?”
“Well it’s the Sacred Groves, it where we go here for church, kind of.”
“What type of Church is it, because I’m not very religious.”
“That’s totally cool, because we don’t call ourselves a religion either. It’s more like we have an idea or philosophy. We don’t try to disprove any religion or are in opposition to any religious belief. We look at the world and we know there is a higher purpose. We don’t know everything yet but we can align ourselves with what’s good. Besides I don’t think you want a community college lecture of philosophy. Let’s play.”
Going into the gym it was well maintained. I was used to crappy park and rec gyms that were the courts always needed one repair after another This one could have been used by an University. We joined and played ball. I’m not great but I played my fair share. Besides this was a chance for me to really enjoy myself on my own terms, since I got here.
The game started with 5 on 5 teams, full court. They were all members of the Sacred Groves except me. They were already trash talking, but in a friendly way. Before the game started, Ed looked over to me and said, “I’m counting on you, make order out of the chaos on the court.” That wasn’t something I was expecting but whatever I played. At least I wasn’t completely out of shape. The game was a see-saw battle back and forth. I got a lot of touches for a new guy, but I made shots. Finally at game point, we took the ball. Ed started a pick and roll and gave me the ball on the outside. I shot and made it. Ed pointed to me with a big smile on his face. It felt so good to win.
On the sidelines I saw Ed’s Father. He walked up to me and said, “Impressive shot young man. I’m Charles Harrington Jr. I’m the Elder of the Sacred Groves.”
“Oh hi Pastor, I really enjoyed playing basket ball here. “
“Just call me Elder. You’re welcome to come here any time. Ed say you’re a quite a talented individual. I hope to explain that we are not some crazy religion. We are called the Sahu it’s something passed down to us from the Egyptians.”
“Wow sounds kind of complicated.”
“Not really, you see that there are only 5 major rules for the Sahu. Its not like you have to study for years in a seminary to understand everything. Besides all major religions have a form of the golden rule. We are are no different. C’mon over for Sunday, we have food after.”
That last part was said with his hand over his mouth as if he was whispering a secret in a joking manner, but his son continued, “Really you should come over. There is bacon, sausage, French toast, pancakes, orange juice. Dude it’s worth it.”
“Sounds like a plan , I’ll see you Sunday. That night I felt happy. I thought I can write out my thought here to make sure I can make sense of everything. I never dealt with religion too much. I always sent the door-to-door guys away. These guys are nice but what are they getting at? It’s not something you have to die for. Maybe they are asking for money, but I’m a kid I have no money. The jokes is on them.
I went to the service on Sunday. My mom and were surprisingly easy going to a different Church. She said that the Olive trees take a generation to grow and that they were a symbol of peace. Inside the temple (That’s what they call it) we sat in the pews. Instead of stained-glass iconography, there were a few decorations, probably better described as artifacts. There was whole wall written in Egyptian Hieroglyphics. The opposite wall there was a Manuscript (I later learned it’s called the Voynich Manuscript, Wikipedia said it wasn’t translated). In the front wall there were 5 rules written.
I will be an agent for order and not chaos.
I will not allow chaos to affect me or others
I will align my heart, mind and soul for the purposes of order
I will learn how to preserve the order in the Universe
I will pass down the primordial ways to others.
There was nothing crazy like sacrificing your first born or handing over all your money to the Church. Maybe it wasn’t so bad. The service started and the choir sung a popular song you would hear on the radio. Pretty modern for a religious group. The sermon was pretty short only 15 minutes. It wasn’t one that I was used to. There was no fire and brimstone. As I remember it, the topic was making order out of order and making chaos out of chaos. The point being is to stay true the principles that were handed down. After that the whole community read the 5 rules and then sung another popular song and the service was concluded. The people made a collective movement to the cafeteria a short way away. People were catching up and talking with each other. Not much different than what happens at churches that I went to.
Elder Charles called for my family to go first for breakfast. I guess they made a priority for newcomers. We filled up our plates. This is not like the pancake breakfasts I was used to. This was a really good buffet. The people were friendly and just wanted to know about our family. They were impressed with my dad working at the hospital and really happy to see us. We left feeling that we had made new friends. Just before we were about to leave Ed popped up.
“Thanks for making it out here. Some people get freaked out about the whole religion thing. There’s no pressure at all.”
“I’m sorry I never heard of it before.”
“Its America’s best kept secret. But we don’t expect you guys to know about especially since you moved in from out of state. Besides since my mom is gone I would really like someone to talk to.”
“Oh man sorry for your loss….”
“No she’s not dead, we just don’t know where she is. We’ll talk about that more later. See ya.”
So that’s how that ended. Was he telling me something more? Was there something behind what he was doing? I’ll have to see and learn more about this stuff.