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2 One hour musical conversations ... talks and live music ... will begin at 10:30 a.m. in the Peter J . Peters Meeting Room and will be preceded by refreshments served by the Friends of the Library at 10:00 a.m. Tickets are available at the Library. The cost for the series is $39.00 and $33.00 for seniors. Single tickets will be $14.00 at the door, if seating is available. For further information call Dorothy Nairne at 922-6406. Please make cheques payable to "Memorial Library Foundation of West Vancouver." HUMAN DIGNITY & THE MYSTERY WHICH IS MAN An old newspaper cutting (author, date and source unknown) which I found recently amongst my scrapbook materials, seemed to pinpoint all the reasons why our world is getting into such a mess. Soon after reading it, I looked again at one of my favorite books, "My Heart Soars" written by the late Indian Chief Dan George, and these two pieces of writing from totally different origins and cultures seemed to complement each other. One is much wiser than the other, but unfortunately its philosophy is comparatively little known or appreciated. First: the newspaper cutting Our planet Is a storehouse of beauty and complexity: shapes and patterns, textures and mechanisms, too many to discover in a single lifetime. Yet the greatest marvel is man himself. Even after a century of amazing scientific advances still there exist tantalizing mysteries about how our bodies and minds work, and a whole library of books could scarcely contain all the physical and mental operations of one human being in the course of just one day. Man is intimately linked with the rest of creation and dependent upon it. He is its most eloquent expression and its strongest paradox; at one moment brimming with generous ideals, subtle thoughts, delicate feelings, at another engaged in cruelty and ruthless ambition. He alone can determine his own fate, he alone is caught up in a ceaseless moral struggle between good and evil. Nothing it seems is more relevant to man's present problems than a sense of reverence for the human person. In countless ways human dignity is under assault. Occasionally, for example when an astronaut's life is in danger, or a kidnapped victim's, mankind seems to focus, through the news media, on that particular event, and to recognise the value of an individual human life. But more often than not news stories reflect a contempt for human beings, whether in war, massacres and persecutions, or in the priorities which rule the decisions made in commerce and politics. We urgently need to recapture a sense of wonder at the mystery which is man, and to make reverence for man the most fundamental and important principle governing our actions, whether in private or in public affairs. Only by building up a sense of our unique personal value, and the unique value of every other member of our human community, is there the slightest hope of offering effective resistance to the powers which continuously degrade and defile God's image on earth. We have not invented new sins, but we have committed old sins on a scale previously unparalleled. Change might result if each of us takes a close look at the wonders and mysteries which surround us in the natural creation, and at the greatest mystery of all, our own human nature. .../3