“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

Nature realizes that there is no such thing as waste. This statement applies also to your earlier questions this evening about the sperm. Nothing in the stream of life is wasted, and everything, whether in your system of reality or not, is in the stream of life. You were born in the Depression, Ruburt shortly thereafter. Thrift was a necessity in those times. There were great contrasts in that period, however—deprivation, severest economic conditions, a spareness of attitude, set off by the greatest criminal activity, the wildest of parties. People broke the prohibition laws who never drank before, and did not like to drink. The ideas of thrift and the puritan attitudes were not the result of the Depression, but helped cause it.

When I say economy however I am not simply speaking of economics in financial terms—rather in the larger meaning of economy in sparing down, cutting out nonessentials, fearing to waste not simply money, but energy or time. All of these ideas are based upon the fear that an individual possesses only so much energy that must be hoarded, directed—not easily, but with fantastic force. The clothes dryer in the basement represents energy that you are afraid to use. You realize you have the money to run the machine, or to buy the washer. It seems somehow sinful, however, wasteful and wrong.

Ruburt has been trying to be economical in terms of money, energy and time. He differed from you only in that he carried your own ideas and his further in certain respects. In others, financially for example, he broke away first and you followed. The idea of the spare, poor young artist or writer, living romantically in a garret or poor apartment, has served as a handy self-image for many in their early years, providing a sense of dignity that enabled such apprentices to make their way. You chose the circumstances. You purposely chose a time involved in which writers and artists had it “hard”—so you cannot turn around then and blame the society. You each wanted to be apart from it to some extent. You (RFB) proved to yourself that your art could support you when you were young. You made good money. Then you immediately disentangled your abilities from economics in a particular fashion. You used your dexterity in “artistic” ways in your jobs—but the bulk of your artistic yearnings were divorced completely from the world at large. Ruburt did not know that his abilities could ever bring him money.

I need not spare you, spare yourself, young man. [...]

([Theodore:] “That goes double” [to Rachel]; “Spare me” [to Seth].)

[...] Two 10-minute periods would be excellent—if you will spare the time.

[...] “Spare me,” I said, only half joking. [...]

[...] We felt that she had been spared injury, for whatever reasons. [...]

I am sparing no one here, incidentally, for your benefits. [...]

This is not all however, and I do not spare him.

(I’m sure my improved attitude resulted from the last two sessions—plus other recent ones—but I have resolved anew that I must simply concentrate upon my creative work each day, see Jane and help her as much as I can, and spare my body consciousness the needless stress of worrying about the future. [...]

To his way of thinking he cut out all excess baggage, so he had a spare diet, physically speaking. [...]

[...] Perhaps Curt didn’t have much time to spare either, for when I did get a minute to talk, I saw him going out the front door. [...]

[...] In your spare time, therefore, when your chores were done, you entertained travelers. [...]

[...] Ideas of virtue, spareness and artistic single attentiveness as opposed to the idea of extravagance, the scattering of energies, or pleasure as a tempting disruptive force; all such beliefs are suddenly shaken up in a new bag, so to speak, so that you can distinguish between them with some new understanding. [...]

[...] At the same time—I do not mean simultaneously—in spare moments, playfully and not seriously, he should see himself performing any number of activities on the floor—from painting as he used to, to talking or reading. [...]

[...] The time of the year had something to do with it, for many people are already spending spare time Christmas shopping.

[...] You will always have to wonder about a kind of mechanical birth of the universe—and it will indeed seem as if your own world was made up of the spare parts that somehow fell together in just such a fashion so that life later emerged.

[...] I had asked for its end in order to spare her fatigue, as a matter of routine. [...]

[...] In his spare time, however, for a lark, simply because he wanted to, he wrote his Alice in Wonderland—a book that is a masterpiece at many levels. [...]

[...] You can safely afford $30,000, with what I know of money that will come in, and with plenty to spare. [...]

[...] Brought so close to death, their own youthful strength rose, and while the tragedy will haunt them, still they will wonder that they were spared—and therefore seek for the meaning of their existence.

[...] This session appears to be basic, but perhaps parts pertaining to me were blocked, to spare my feelings? [...]

[...] In your spare moments, see yourself in your mind’s eye easily performing normal physical pursuits as you did before. [...]