The recent issue of Subud USA has a delightful story from Latifah Taormina, “The Tragic Tale of the Disappearing Chairs.” Latifah traces how hundreds of Bentwood chairs came from the improv theater group “The Committee” in San Francisco to the Subud Marin Center in 1972 and links it to the importance of contributing to SICA. Read her story here and make you own contribution to SICA here.
When chatting about this story, Latifah mentioned another tale from the annals of Subud California, from the time when the region began its search for Subud houses. Here is an excerpt:
“Because of the work I had done with the San Francisco group’s housing committee, I was able to attend a most interesting meeting with Bapak during his visit to California in 1968. It was with the regional helpers and committee with regard to the ownership of future Subud houses in California.
At one point I asked Bapak, “If San Francisco has $5,000 in their house fund, but Subud Los Angeles finds a property first and needs our $5,000, that Subud San Francisco would have to give it to them?” Bapak smiled and nodded. “Yes,” he said, in English.
Of course, he would say that. Gotong-royong is a core tenet of Indonesian life. It means mutual cooperation to achieve a shared goal. While we may not have known that particular phrase that was how we worked when we started The Committee (an improv theater Alan Myerson and I started in San Francisco in 1963). But as soon as Bapak said that, I overheard a member who’d been cooking dinners to raise money for the San Francisco group mutter to herself, “That’s the last dinner I’m cooking.” Yes, we were all in Subud, but none of us were saints.” (excerpt from Ha Ha Among the Trumpets, © Latifah Taormina, a memoir still being edited).
Since then, Subud California has established a regional housing fund that is only used to provide loans to centers that want to repair or purchase a Subud hall. Centers have developed successful enterprises which enabled them to pay back the loans and maintain their properties. Our region has come a long way!