Theo: The Circle of a Transcendent

By Robert L. Menz

Travel with Treb and Theo to experience the triumphs and tribulations of an intuitive giant. Witness Theos gift in the Central Highlands of Viet Nam. Feel his anguish as he encounters resistance from the legal system in Virginia and his exhilaration as he shapes the Patch in Southeast Missouri.

Get to know those in the inner circle of the Circle. Observe Theos gifts of compassion, inspiration, realia, congruence, love, and emergence (CIRCLE), not only giving rise to this benevolent society, but also becoming the force that accomplishes the seemingly impossible.

Theo: The Circle of a Transcendent, reveals the story of a true transcendent. From his conception that was indeed unique, to a life of sacrificial giving. Theos life exemplifies the lofty traits of the human potential. Learn from Theo how to grow in purpose and, more importantly, how to love, laugh, and live.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Balboa Press
• Release date: Dec 8, 2016
• ISBN: 9781504369381

Robert L. Menz

Robert L. Menz, DMin, is a retired Certified Employee Assistance Professional, Educator, and Pastoral Psychotherapist. He is the author of A Memoir of a Pastoral Counseling Practice and A Pastoral Counselors Model for Wellness in the Workplace: Psychergonomics, both from Haworth press. He is the editor/author of Changing Society: A Social and Spiritual Vision for the Year 2020 and Beyond from University Press of America. In addition, Dr. Menz authored Divine Entreaty: Prayers for Public and Diverse Settings from Balboa Press and is a contributing author to Departures 2010: Writings by the Faculty, Staff, Alumni, & Students of Edison Community College – as well as numerous articles in professional journals. Robert and his wife Ruth live in Sidney, Ohio and enjoy traveling, communing with nature and grand parenting.

Book preview

Copyright © 2016 Robert L. Menz.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Balboa Press

A Division of Hay House

1663 Liberty Drive

Bloomington, IN 47403

www.balboapress.com

1 [phone]

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

The author of this book does not dispense medical advice or prescribe the use of any technique as a form of treatment for physical, emotional, or medical problems without the advice of a physician, either directly or indirectly. The intent of the author is only to offer information of a general nature to help you in your quest for emotional and spiritual well-being. In the event you use any of the information in this book for yourself, which is your constitutional right, the author and the publisher assume no responsibility for your actions.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

ISBN: 978-1-5043-6937-4 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5043-6939-8 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-5043-6938-1 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2016918805

Balboa Press rev. date: 12/05/2016

Contents

Treb Introduces Theo

Chapter 1 The Memorial, Part One

Chapter 2 Meet Treb

Bullets for Christmas

The Three-Stepper

What’s on the Menu?

Chapter 3 Meet Abdul

The Graduation

Come Soar with Me

The Invitation

Chapter 4 Meet Bert

Preparing for Law School

The Successful Practice

Theo Seeks Bert

Chapter 5 The Suit

Theo Encounters Resistance

Bert and Theo Meet

Theo Explains Wellness

Chapter 6 The Negotiations

The Preliminary Hearing

Tit for Tat

The Storm Passes

Chapter 7 The Resolve

Solidifying the Community

The Wall Removes Walls

Treb and Bert Meet

Chapter 8 The Incorporation

The Circle

The Patch

The Fruition

Chapter 9 Theo Becomes an Academician

Unity University

The Move

Professor Theo

Chapter 10 The Conference Center

The Building Proposal

Keynote for Change

The Resolve to Build

Chapter 11 Circle 2000

The Circle Evolves

A Balanced Keynote

The Patch Indeed Patches

Chapter 12 LX3

Writing LX3

Publishing LX3

Theo’s Philanthropy

Chapter 13 Theo’s Brand

Theo’s Influence

Theoisms

Theo’s Words

Chapter 14 The Circle’s Pluralism

Diverse Identities

Theo’s Welcome in Absentia

Text of the Inclusive Keynote

Chapter 15 Theo’s Limitless Giving

The Altruistic Theo

The Need in Liberia

The Unfathomable Happens

Chapter 16 The Memorial, Part Two

Epilogue

To Ruth

The one who laughs and cries with me

reads and learns with me

travels and discovers with me

eats and sleeps with me

loves and lives with me

Without her I am ruthless

Treb Introduces Theo

M ost people call me Treb. Trebor was shortened when I was in the Army, and it seems everyone, except for my family, prefers the shortened version. I seem to have been born with an insatiable thirst for the cutting edge, the next page, the quest. The more I leaned into the grandeur of discovery, the more the adventure became the scope of my horizon. The older I became—I am now an official senior citizen—the more this obsession for life evolved. I wanted to go everywhere, and I almost have. I wanted to understand more, and the pursuit of science has been a passion. I wanted to transcend the everyday struggles and accomplishments of life, and this is likely how I came to know—really know—Theo. This story is not about me. It is a story of a transcendent and my privileged metaphorical and literal travels with him.

Theo Perkins and I met in the central highlands of Vietnam in 1970. In fact, Theo was the first one to call me Treb. I had mixed feelings about my nickname because my parents named me after an English writer, Trebor Eel, a philosopher and poet that my dad loved—and loved to quote. I know only of my namesake from my father. He would recite, You are the only one that can be you; if you fail to be authentic, you will not be. Another quote my father loved from the English Trebor was give it time, and faith will become fact. In fact, through the years, it was hard for me to differentiate these quotes that my dad would offer from the insights of my father himself. For example, before the phrase if you build it, they will come entered the public consciousness, my dad would say, If you can imagine it, you can make it real.

Theo and I are of similar age and common European ancestry. Theo and my father are four inches shorter than my five feet and eleven inches, yet like my father, I considered him a giant. In retrospect, I suspect I was first attracted to Theo because he reminded me of my dad. That is, Theo was one who could see beyond the quagmire of confusing life experiences and envision meaning and purpose. Later, as you will see, came much more.

The name Theo, I learned, means God’s gift. I’m not sure if Theo’s mother had intended to apply this label to him or if he had been named after another Theo of influence. For me, however, Theo was indeed God’s gift.

Theo had no father, and his mother, Vimarie, maintained that Theo was conceived without union with a man. When Theo first told me this in the mid-1980s, I thought that her pregnancy must have been the result of artificial insemination. Such was not the case. I remember asking Theo, Are you saying that your mother, like Jesus’s mother, conceived you through divine conception and that you, too, are the Son of God?

Oh indeed, I am the Son of God, as are you, but my mother makes no claim that her conception was any result of the divine.

I was perplexed and intrigued. Theo, if you were not conceived in a test tube and it was not supernatural, how could this be?

Treb, my conception, though rare, is not as unbelievable as it first seems. Most people have never heard of monogenesis or parthenogenesis. This is a process of spontaneous embryo development from one gamete or sex cell rather than from the union of two. This is not uncommon among plants and invertebrate animals. It is less common among selected species of lizards and certain fish. What is absolutely not understood by the general population is that monogenesis occurs in the human species about once in every 1.6 million pregnancies.

So this must explain your gift, I insisted.

It explains only why I have no father.

Since monogenesis can only occur with women, does this mean that the power you have results from the absence of sperm?

Treb, the only thing that gets in the way of one’s gift is the avoidance of love. Love is the force that can move mountains and accomplish the seemingly impossible.

Theo, you are one in a million—or more precisely, one in 1.6 million.

I felt very close to Theo from our initial encounters in Vietnam. When we won that war (we made it out alive, and therefore we felt like winners) our relationship grew exponentially.

In the early 1980s, Theo conceived the transcendent society he called the Circle. The name Circle was derived from an acronym, CIRCLE, which stood for Compassion, Inspiration, Realia, Congruence, Love, and Emergence. As with many private societies, membership was extended by invitation only, and unanimous consent was required for one to be allowed in. This tenet was later modified to allow individuals to approach the Circle for membership, instead of the Circle first approaching them. Theo