by Luqman Katz
At 21 yrs old, I hitchhiked 3000 miles from New York to Carmel Valley, CA. Why? I was going to attend SFAI, the art institute. A friend told me of this spiritual group called “Soyo” (so I thought). Well, turns out it was called Subud. Anyone hear of it? It was love at first experience and 50 years later, here I still stand.
I eventually moved to London for a masters degree program in sculpture. There, I was a member of the Islington Group (at the time, there were over 10 Subud centers in the Greater London area). I was chairman there for a term, and half of the committee members were Americans!
Five years later, back in the states with a family and no means of support, I joined up with the Subud enterprise in Carmel Valley and learned cabinet making and carpentry. And this is what I did for the next 40 years. It was a delight, really. It fulfilled my creative bent and I learned to let my hands do the thinking for me. You know, it’s a what are your hands for kind of deal, and it works!
Recently, I have been the Chair of the Los Angeles Wilshire Center, helping develop new tenants, who have brought income to fund needed repairs to the building.
As your regional chair for these next two years, I would like to experience a return to the main reason we are all in this thing, the Latihan. Raphaela Riparetti (our new vice-chair) and I had a lunch meeting with our Regional Helpers about this and they couldn’t agree more. So, while we trudge through all the t crossing and i dotting, we’d like to emphasize the work of our helpers. I would love to have them travel more to visit all of you and to hold kejiwaan days up and down our coast.
Mo’ money and mo’ money will emerge to facilitate this, God willing and Amen!!!!!!
Pictured above: Luqman shows the new LA Roof to Farah Hess (then Chair of the Region’s Property Management Committee)