“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

More than that, however, as far as you are both personally concerned, you have a built-in sense of distance that gives the house actually an extra dimension of privacy that is not within the grounds themselves, yet adds to that aura. The house is set itself atop its own knoll, which to Ruburt at least gives a fortress feeling, in that he can look down and see who is coming.

Those people enjoy the reassurance that others give that reinforces the way of life that they have chosen. The houses themselves have a quality, a life, that is picked up by potential buyers. Certain houses repel you and Ruburt. They will however positively attract others, so the qualities in the houses that appeal to you are precisely those qualities that have turned others off, and prevented their sale. Quite simply, Ruburt finds carpeting sinful if it is expensive, unless it is in the living room, where he might accept it. It speaks of too much luxury.

On the other hand he regards that scene as true, joyous luxury. It is highly important however that you move. Ruburt’s response is very healthy for him, since it involves the acceptable use of exuberant and aggressive energy, and the sense of power in the physical realm.

There are points to be considered also in the Levine affair, for our bemused Dr. Levine would cut out all of nature, you think, if he had the chance, and as Ruburt said, sterilize the neighborhood. His response there was excellent for him, as you said. You both do need privacy for your work and because of your natures, but if you try to find a home with no dogs or children within miles, then in another way you are doing what Sam Levine is trying to do, only in your own way. To you, far more acceptable, of course, than his way.

Even you, however, will feel more secure with a place of your own than you would with the money drawing interest in the bank. It is a different kind of security. Your daily environment is very important to your work, and to Ruburt. The money in the bank is helpful, but if your daily environment is not conducive to your work and peace of mind, then the money security is meaningless. You will have plenty plus your house. An expensive house as such is not required. Your own ideas however of privacy and so forth in your society requires a certain amount of cash. There is nothing wrong for example with the south side. You also possess an esthetic sense, however. You require certain things of your art, and therefore you want the same things in your environment. Once you had it here, for all of your criticism. Now it is gone, and you are different.

In the Foster house you would find yourselves having to open the place up, and you would find triumphant joy when the windows worked. Ruburt would eventually alter the kitchen so that more light came in. That would be symbolic and practical.

You would end up eventually making a studio in the attic, which would cost you more money, which you would have to spend. In the summer there would indeed be annoying children’s voices that reminded you that others lived differently. Ruburt would end up ripping away part of the carpet—good expensive rug—and changing the rooms about. And you cannot put a money value on what you would get out of that house.

That house has greater capacity in terms of adding on in the attic. It has its own formality. That formality, oddly enough, will encourage Ruburt’s spontaneity, for he would find it a challenge to work with the house and yet in counterpoint.

Give us a moment.... The property also will rise, as I said the Foster property would. It is sunnier, obviously. You would definitely however end up tearing down a wall, and I believe that you might add another room, or want to possibly in the future, to one side. You would also end up enlarging some windows for your work areas. Ruburt would, incidentally, as he said, plop down at the largest window.

The hill house does not. It represents a kind of challenge you have not thus far accepted. A kind of living in the present that has frightened you both. As given however it still possesses qualities that do go in with your natures. Foster Street represents an elegant secretive past, and you would both try to hide within it. Ruburt hates to give it up for that reason, but to a lesser degree so do you.

Give us time.... When you live in a house that belongs conspicuously to another age, you are to some extent avoiding the contemporary nature of life. Ruburt may find himself furnishing the place more formally than another, yet the open quality of the air is the kind of air that you do not hide in.

The sunny nature and the open quality—regardless of what Ruburt thinks now, will help him creatively and physically—but the house represents a decision to face the world, while maintaining certain necessary and quite reasonable conditions. It provides privacy yet openness.

Now Ruburt feels to some extent that a nice place is permissible if it is decadent. That had to do with Foster. There is no need to be ashamed of your money, or to fear there will not be more of it. You need an intimate give-and-take with the land. The hillside is not yours, yet it is your view. And it has strong evocative connections with your creative lives.

On the house: now Ruburt could quite cleverly see Dr. Sam as he tried to shut nature out, and be at the same time relatively opaque in understanding his feelings toward the Foster Street house—his own feelings.