“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(She was again very relaxed today. She’d also been picking up from Seth through the day some quite amused comments on a variety of subjects we’d mentioned, ranging from “carpets and health” to the “nature of the law, the connection between the law and ideals and their actualization; the reactions of Tam Mossman to our feelings about Fate Magazine,” etc.

Many ideals, however, must remain by their nature somewhat generalized, a matter of inspiration, for example, that cannot perhaps so easily be put into words; or sometimes the ideal exists simply as a yearning for a better situation, though no immediate steps come to mind that offer any concerted plan for action.

The ideal may be specific, then, or ill-defined, and man’s idea of “the good” varies considerably. The better you can define your idea of the ideal, the better off you are, for it—the definition—at least clears your own mind, and suggests lines of action too. “The best” idealist is a practical one—someone who realizes that most men like to work with specifics. Many might shy away from any philosophical discussions concerning the nature of “the good,” but many would also understand and appreciate the meaning of the word “better,” when applied to any situation.

(9.39.) You feel sometimes a visual outrage, because your natural ideals tend to follow the design and integrity, the lines and flowing patterns that belong to the nature of the universe. Some part of you feels that when such blatant distortions occur, as sometimes occur in the packaging of the books, that far greater invisible lacks of integrity lie buried within. Now that is true and not true, as you know—for ideally, how marvelous it would be if each person could indeed understand those balances and artistic lacks of balances when they appear.

On the other hand, of course, the very individuality implied in art itself tells you that even the ideal must follow its own eccentric patterns, and that man must find his own way out of his l-a-c-k-s (spelled). Ruburt, however, would rarely deal with such issues at all, though he was aware of them, so you felt you bore the brunt. You cannot expect Prentice to understand the nature of your own idealism, or Ruburt’s, in such a way that Prentice as an entity can apply that idealism to its packaging. Not unless you define, you specify. You get together, the two of you, on each issue, as it happens, and make your decision together, and stick by it. You have not done this before because each of you would become irritated at the other’s mode of behavior.

The coins represent the small amount of money Ruburt did receive. The old man also stands for Ruburt’s father, as Ruburt thought of him bumming around, frittering away his time and energy, so he was stealing from the pot. There would be nothing left. Ruburt was not greedy, but curious. The missing key represented Yale locks (with emphatic amusement). The dream said “Do not wait too late to set up the legal mechanism,” and affirmed that Yale was at least a good idea. (Pause.) The old man also stood for old man time in the dream, and reinstated the fact that an executor is important, for the old man also stood for —in the dream, now—Ruburt’s father acting as his own executor—meaning that his nature led him to leave ends loose.