Personally, I believe the discussion that stemmed from the death of Shrop has to do with his being a spirit giant, and the otherness he represented in the Order. As other names came to mind and were recalled, they also illuminated for me the globalness and diversity that we were/are in this world. The dynamics of the O:E in the 60s and 70s were way ahead of the times. Today we have an African-American president. The idea of that was only a dream dreamt by a few 35-40 years ago. Discussing the otherness of different groups who made up the Order, in my mind, only enriches the wonderful memories of the impact we had/have in the world. In many ways we were the point of the wedgeblade cutting through what was to what came to be. Thank God for all those we've names who were other than some of us, and who taught us what it was to be black living in America at the time. No wonder they made a difference when they worked in India or Australia when they did, because in those times the world knew about the racial division that was so common in the United States. Ruth --