Movie Stars in Montana

Who would have guessed!

I began my 6th Walk Across America on June 10. I had no idea what or whom I would encounter on the journey which was intended to cover thousands of miles. Nor did I have any hints as to how rugged the weather would be along the way.

I have covered almost 5000 miles altogether on my previous jaunts. This one was planned to be longer than all those travels put together. But … “Life happens, while we make plans.” This brief walk – which may become chapter one of a longer version –became harder and harsher weather-wise than any of the previous ones. It also became quite unusual for the extraordinary people I encountered in a relative few days. 

Before I walked out the door, my neighbor Walt Scotson prayed over me and my flag-waving venture. But on the road things were different. Immediately, I walked a few miles up the hill on Highway 191 – not a problem by itself, but the wind was blowing and blowing. I had to furl my flag rather than fight it and the wind at the same time. Before long, I dealt not just with wind but also rain and relative cold – the nights felt more like early spring than almost summer. 

Along the way, I encountered all sorts of folks who stopped to visit for one reason or another. Two sets of young Air Force Security Policemen – Smith and Milone, Lyles and Snovel - stopped on different days to say “Hello” and take photos with me and the flag. These fellows keep track of some of the 150 missile silos spread around Montana.

One day, Layton Kelly from Circle who was on the road from Helena learning to be a Combination Inspector stopped for a friendly visit on the side of the road. The same day, Fergus County Deputy Curry checked on me as I rested next to the highway in the borrow pit. 

There were several more that I met along the way – most notably the Carlson brothers on the edge of Lewistown. I “camped” one night in veterinarian Greg Carlson’s huge barn to avoid the chilling rain. Then, the Hobbs in the middle of the road. Nicole and Dirk were on their way from Indiana to visit family in Washington state. They stopped to talk about my walk and flag, and Dirk’s work for the Naval Weapons Station in Crane – third largest naval base in the world in the middle of Indiana. Before we parted ways, photos were taken and Nicole prayed for the benefit of the Walk. 

Thereafter, I remarked about her preaching potential. Nicole responded by saying, “Oh, I only preach to him.”

Of totally unexpected and keen interest was a meeting which occurred as I turned off the main highway toward Grass Range. At that moment, a woman pulled up to the stop sign in a Jeep and yelled out to me. I crossed the quiet road. Then, we introduced ourselves and talked for a few minutes. The driver told me she was – believe it or not – Marilyn Monroe. Interestingly, she admitted to living at the Ayers Hutterite Colony back down the road a few miles.

Surprisingly, I saw Marilyn again a couple days later. You see, I attended a Bible study group at the Christian Community Fellowship led by the pastor Bill Plouffe. Nine of us sat around a couple large tables and commented on the material presented in a book that the members had in hand. After the pastor said a closing prayer, I joined Jim and Kathie and Sam for a visit to Marilyn at the Ayers Colony.

Marilyn Monroe, aka Marilyn Stahl, is an extraordinary woman. She must have set the leaders of the colony back on their feet more than a few times. Marilyn certainly caused this outsider to wonder as she is a single woman in her 70s, never married, has her own home and drives a car – which belongs to her good friend, Sam Holmes, who is a retired Pennsylvania railroad man. All those peculiarities distinguish her from other Hutterite women. 

The group chatted and laughed back and forth for about an hour before Marilyn bid us goodbye and we returned to Grass Range. The current day Marilyn Monroe is something of a marvel – Hutterite or otherwise. But, there was another “star” yet to be met down the road.

In the meantime, I spent a few days in Grass Range getting to know a variety of people – a councilwoman, an auto mechanic, the new owners of the Little Montana Campground, pastor Plouffe, and 90-year-old George Dengel who acts as the Master at the Captain Scott Masonic Lodge. George might be due a story of his own, but …

I ventured on to Winnett and covered about 25 miles in one good push. Arriving after dark, I rolled my sleeping bag out next to a vacant building some time after midnight. In close proximity was a handsome structure which turned out to be the Old 55 which had been moved a couple blocks to open the space where the massive new Petroleum County Community Center was constructed in 2023.

Surveying the territory, I was pleased to find a coffee shop inside the Old 55 – now located at 107. I quickly determined to drop in for some hot tea in the morning. And so I did. Delighted I was to meet the owner of the recently opened Punchy Paint Coffee Shop. “Paint” was a perfect name for the imaginatively decorated interior. It was a treat just to sit and take in all the colors as well as the many horses depicted on the walls.

Then too, I kept turning to read a sign running at the top of one wall. It said, “Fueling Faith, Community, Creativity, and Community.” Katie Lund, the proprietor, provided that and much more – most especially Kindness to this traveler and surely many others who cross her path. That first morning in Winnett, Katie served me mint tea – and tried to give me a cinnamon roll to boot. I gladly ate it, but insisted on paying for it despite her intended kind gift. 

In the midst of our first conversation, I had an AHA and had to say, “You look like – you could be Julia Roberts.” She smiled and laughed, then said, “I have heard that before.” So in a few days on the trail in rural Montana, I had met Marilyn Monroe and Julia Roberts. What a deal!!!

Of further keen interest, I got to meet and spend time with Katie’s aka Julia Roberts’s husband who is quite fittingly named J.R. J.R. is a rancher whose full name is Justin Ronald. When my time in Winnett was up, J.R. gave me a ride back to Harlowton. He wouldn’t even let me pay for the gas.

Ah, I shan’t forget one more “star.” Actually, I think of her as an angel. Radiant and generous, thoughtful and busy. Heidi Hanson does not have a Hollywood name or look-alike. But, she did remind me a little of the Heidi in the children’s novel by the Swiss writer Johanna Spyri written in 1880. Heidi Hanson has seven of her own children to tend even while she works many hours a week at several quite physical jobs. Heidi added another dimension to my stay through her several gifts, glowing face, and shining spirit.

Who knows what celebrity or angel may be around the next corner!

I close by saying that Winnett might well change its name to Kindness, Montana.

Time to Get Back on the Road Again - as Willie Nelson Might Say

Hello Friends.

This is a different kind of blog - a preview of things to come.

We are pleased to announce our next time On the Road Again. Beginning 10 June, 2026 we will be walking Border to Border. 

The plan is to hit the road, cover territory, and see the USA in the on-foot way - or at a large portion of it as you can tell by the map below. We imagine passing through all states west of the Missouri River - except Wyoming. 

We will be carrying our own version of the American flag and trying to remind people that Americans should spend more time Living the Golden Rule and Loving their Neighbors. 

When opportunities arise we will post updates at facebook.com/robert.mcnary.585, at the robertmcnary.medium.com link below, or here at blogspot.

A summary including photos of our first Big Walk in 2002 can be perused at https://theportableschool.com/LongRoad.html

Expanding – Moving – Changing

 Friends and Readers.

We - the proverbial we - trying to collate and organize things better, have copied all of our blogs from several years to our personal website at http://theportableschool.com/Blogs/DrBobsWalkBlogs.html We accomplished this early in 2021. 

Centralizing things makes for ease of the writer and hopefully for the reader. Perusing the page noted above will better explain the context and flow of blog-essays over the past years.

We will return to blogging here when next On the Road Again. We cannot predict for sure when that will occur especially with the pandemic lingering on.

We are always open to comments here or via email at theportableschool dot gmail dot com.

Good Day to you, 

Dr. Bob and Friends

Play It Again, Spear Shaker

The idea that, “All the world is a stage,” is attributed to Wm. Shakespeare.

But, you might be interested to know that Shakespeare was the pen name of Sir Francis Bacon. The stage was for centuries looked down upon by many, often the upper class. While holding a number of positions in the government of Elizabeth I, Bacon had to be careful about how and where he exposed himself to the public.

At the same time, he had early in life decided to take on “all knowledge as my province.” Numerous works flowed from his pen while he helped shape the English language along the way. But, writing dozens of plays and sonnets in the name of Shakespeare may have contributed more to posterity than most of his other explorations.

Yes, there was a William Shakespeare. An actor who had traveled little in his life and died penniless with a handful of books in his home. How and if Bacon ever interacted with him in real life is not known? We do know that many thinkers believe that that William Shakespeare was for many reasons incapable of producing the works put out in his name. Even upon modest research, it appears that Francis Bacon is the Real Shakespeare.

The works attributed to the name of the “Bard of Avon” cover broad arenas of life in England and the Continent even back to the days of Julius Caesar. That stage was wide and spacious touching on the lives of numerous real and imagined kings and commoners in tragedies and comedies. What “Shakespeare” has put before theater for four hundred years mimics much of our own lives. 

How can that be? Ah, because “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players. They have their exits and their entrances. And one may in his time play many parts. His acts being seven ages.”

For the audiences of his day and ours, the author wrote of those ages being infant, schoolboy, lover, soldier, justice, elder, and dotard.

But, much more can be inferred from this quote from As You Like It than you might think. It may be viewed from beyond the perspective of one lifetime, if we dare. Dare we?

Seven ages refer in a broader sense to the rounds of life through which humanity passes in the course of evolution. Humanity as a whole passes through great stages like those from infant to dotard. The Ageless Wisdom teaches that we are in the fourth round of the seven which all cover eons of time. Within this fourth round, humans presently compose what is called the Aryan Race [not to be confused with the Aryans which the Nazis considered themselves]. This fifth race – which is intended to perfect the principle of mind – of our round was preceded by the Atlantean fourth race. It will be superseded in coming millennia by a sixth Race which will be advanced as far beyond our own as we have passed the Atlanteans. Can you imagine that?

Heady stuff, you might say. There is more.

In between the ages of one human lifetime and passages for whole races stand those individual lives through which each of us are obliged to pass. We all have our own seven ages and rounds stretched out over vast periods of history. This one lifetime spent largely in one land for sixty, seventy, eighty years in one body is like a pearl on a great chain. Yet, it makes for a wondrous and awesome aperture through which to look for those with the eyes to see or the hearts to imagine.

Many are led to believe that we will pass from this one life – however imperfect our expression has been in it – to sit in heaven on a cloud for eternity. Such is hardly the case. We are told, even in Christian scripture, that “ye are gods” and enjoined to “be perfect as the Father in heaven.”

Well, that sounds like a tall order for all of us and especially for those who can barely balance a checkbook or even hold a job in order to pay a bill. But, such is the case as in the larger scheme of things each soul living through one [or part of one] of those ages in his/her present lifetime: infant, schoolboy, lover, soldier, justice, elder, and dotard.

Let us dare to look, at least for moments, beyond this embodiment. And then, look forward to those ages which lie ahead. Along the way, let us also begin to do the “greater works” which we must eventually accomplish.

PS. For readers with astrological inclinations, the horoscope of Sir Francis Bacon shows quite clearly that he was a “Spear Shaker.”

For another angle on the Spear Shaker, visit http://www.redicecreations.com/specialreports/2006/05may/spearshaker.html

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Law and Love - The Long and Winding Road

There are a whole lot of roads to travel in a lifetime as well as many attitudes we can carry along the way. Fortunate for all, even when we screw up miserably, there always seems to be a way out, an escape hatch, or a phone friend to lend a hand. 

These three outs have other names which will help to develop the premise of this post On the Road Again. 

Believe it or not, Life is directed under the rule of Law. Every thing and every being is under close attention and care through this Law. Actually, many laws direct the flow of the Universe as they join together to satisfy the Great Law. Every jot and tittle must be fulfilled. What we sow, we must reap. Justice must be served. Karma must be met. 

If you are either unfamiliar or uncomfortable with the word Karma, replace it with a more western one like Cause and Effect, Divine Justice, Providence, Fate, Destiny. We all have to “pay the piper,” one way or another to arrive at the finish line - Heaven, Nirvana, Devachan.

Let’s be clear. The finish line for practically the whole of the human race is a long way off. Eons. These few years as John Doe or Joan Smith are just a link in the chain, a drop in the bucket, a step upon an almost endless journey. Even if we believe ourselves to be “saved.”

I am reminded of a good friend named Rose Wise, an artist and do-gooder, who passed to the other side several years ago. Rose carried heavy loads in her life. Which she managed outwardly through her talents and energies, love and concerns.   

On one occasion, she bemoaned the burdens she carried. Rose went on to remark that she believed she had fulfilled her obligations and would not need to reincarnate again. I had to throw in. “Now, Rose. I don’t like to spoil the party. But, you said the same thing last time around. You will surely be back. Your work is not done. There is no end in sight and much work left to do.”

There is work to be done for ourselves and also to the fulfill the Law. God – the Creator – the Universal Force – has provided three over-arching means for all of us who need help to get to that finish line. Do remember, that destination is the same for us as for those who have “become perfect as the Father in Heaven.” We will all get there eventually, however advanced the goal may be.

Fortunately, we can look to Grace which balances and fulfills the Great Law of Love. Grace is achieved by three wonderful means for us to right wrongs, clear highways in the desert, and prepare the way. Our part in Grace varies from one means to the other. 

George Michael sings The Beatles' The Long and Winding Road

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJifw6Kej2s

• Grace through Giving.

Giving and Forgiving build good Karma. They represent the Law of Love which can do so much day-to-day in this dark world. Remembering that “God is Love,” we should realize that Love is all-inclusive and works in extraordinary ways. When we act through true Love, as exemplified in the Great Ones, we at the same time do ourselves favors. 

Since we are part of a Great Self, doing unto others amounts to doing unto our own self. Good deeds help to neutralize, overcome many of the faults, misdeeds and “sins” we have done in our few decades walking the Earth. The more treasures we share, the more we lighten the weight even of karma created in past lives.

When we share Love, especially to those who would misuse us, we are fulfilling the Greatest Commandment of all. To Love One Another. What wonders the world will express when we all express that simple but exalted state. 

In the meantime, each of us can at least try to live up to the Golden Rule. Let us be assured that when we do make such effort we will receive aid here and there and everywhere.

• Grace through the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit.

Even though every human being is capable at times of giving that kind of Love, its source is beyond our little selves. In those moments, we seem to tune in to Things Greater Than Ourselves. We become channels for the ever-present Goodness seeking expression in the outer world. 

That experience can be made more frequent and magnified through conscious attempts to attune to God, the Higher Self, the Light Within. In other words, meditation.

Meditation is listening to God. Prayer to be talking to God. Would that we spend more time listening and less time making noise. We pass so much time in doing and experiencing, thinking and feeling, that most of us give little more than an hour a week on Sunday for aught else. Some, not even that much time.

I am reminded of an experience from my days long ago when I pastored two small country churches in South Dakota. Early in my job, the chairman of the churches’ board called me aside. He said something like, “Robert, everybody is very pleased with your work and attitude, your preaching and visitations. But, one concern has arisen. That is the length of the Moments of Silence. Could you minimize them? The people don’t know what to do with themselves.” Silence seems to be relatively unknown and unwelcome in the modern age. Even in a church.   

But, silence and meditation – which are almost synonymous – are key to opening the gates to the Higher Self, the Inner World, the Kingdom. And to the wider world of Truth and Love. When we learn to quiet our own human beast, we can call forth the gift/s of the Spirit for the betterment of all – as well as for our selves.

• Grace through reincarnation.

The third means to Grace is the great and wondrous gift of reincarnation. However short we fall from the goal, there is always another round. God gives us more opportunities than we may deserve. But, Forgiveness is one of Divinity’s greatest gifts and one of our most precious benefits.

An old friend used to remind me that, “It’s all Practice.” Fortunately, we have endless chances to get things right. If we succeed in any moment, we can practice humility. If we fail, we get to try, try again. 

We are told to forgive our brother “seventy times seven,” which is surely a means to practice love. Just think how many times we have received that gift from Above. That seems to fit nicely with the idea that most of us require hundreds of lifetimes to achieve. 

Let’s be cheered to realize that the way is open to all, regardless of our track records. We will all make it to the finish line. However long it takes.

• As we practice the Law of Love: “We are put on earth for a little space to learn to bear the beams of love.” (William Blake)

• As we learn to be silent, meditate and listen for the still small voice: “Seek first the kingdom, and all these things will be added.”

• As we struggle along the pathways of life, there are always more opportunities: “In patience possess ye your soul.”

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On the Road Again with Richard Dreyfuss and You

We all travel varied roads in our lifetimes. Some we enjoy, others we dread. Hopefully, we learn from them all.

This writer has had the good fortune to cover thousands of miles on roads on foot during Cross Country Walks in recent history. Then he took a year off to walk Silently. He is still learning from the latter experience, in particular, and maybe more valuable lessons than his times Walking and Talking.

For sundry reasons, he has decided to focus future posts on even more subtle ways to be On the Road Again. While thinking in that direction, he ran across an article originally published in RealClearPolitics.com about the actor Richard Dreyfuss. 

By the 1980s, Dreyfuss has had numerous successes in his career. But, success also brought him painful experiences. The actor was playing in real life the part of a “crazy man” and at times “low-down dirty dog” in the midst a bipolar life. Then, he flipped his Mercedes convertible while high on drugs. He believes that he survived the wreck thanks to a safety belt that he did not remember buckling.

Dreyfuss woke up in the hospital with the image of a young girl in his head. A year later, his daughter Emily was born. It was the child of the dream. He came to consider the whole extended episode as a “mystical experience.”

Now closing on the age of 70, Dreyfuss admits to warming to the idea of reincarnation. “Isn’t it funny that God takes you and puts your through the unendurable, and then at the moment you have just begun to understand it and have some wisdom, it ends? I have this inner life which is vast and as large a the universe. I really like me. I hope I have another life. I hope I get another shot.”

I want to assure Richard Dreyfuss and others that we “all get another shot.” I cannot prove my contention. For, I know next to nothing. But if there is anything of which I am convinced, that I KNOW, it is that I have been here before. Much of this lifetime has been “deja vu all over again.” The same for you, I suspect.

It is very hard to put such things into words. Maybe it is a bit like writing an obituary for someone. How can we synopsize a person’s lifetime in a few sentences? Even the best of obituaries are pale and paltry compared to the wonders of a human’s life. 

So too, to bring LIFETIMES to mind, to put them into words – intelligible to others – is quite a task. That I believe is because we humans, however advanced and intellectual we believe ourselves to be, have rather small brains, limited memories, and circumscribed minds. We often, very often, only see what we want to see. But, how great is the Universe? How large is our God?

Then, dare we to open to other lifetimes? Past and future? 

I have encountered people who fear the idea fiercely. Well, that could be the subject of a whole post.

But for the moment, let us just settle on the evident Truth that all of life is cyclic: day and night, dark and light, good and ill, peace and turmoil, triumph and loss, coming and going. Ah, and coming again. 

The rhythms of life are endless. And we are all part and parcel of them. Nothing is wasted in those cycles. The Universe is the Greatest Recycler of all. And, the GRU brings us back and back and back toward some Awesome Aim. I swear to it. It is one of the few things upon which I would bet my life.

As Groucho Marx used to say, “You bet your life.” You can bet mine too. Here today, gone tomorrow, and back again down the road. 

You and me and Richard Dreyfuss.

I invite you to return from time to time - On the Road Again - for brief vignettes on the second most wonderful gift of the Creator. That of Reincarnation. The first being Life itself.

Direct comments to theportableschool at gmail dot com.

Life is Like a River

Last post, I mentioned a couple ways to look at our existence. Ways which had been brought home to me by spending time rollin’ on the river. This time, the post is especially entwined with the rivers and oceans of the world and of life. 

But to recap from last go round:

• We humans are part of something greater than ourselves. The planet, the solar system, and greater. We are, know it or not, cells living within unimaginably greater beings. Gaia – The Earth and the Solar system for which we have no name and beyond.

• Then, we have our own system of which we are “god” to trillions of cells and atoms. These cells and atoms are living beings, like ourselves at another turn of the spiral of life. 

If we dare imagine, every thing – all things – are alive. That may be a stretch for some. It is paradoxical since we have been so ingrained with the either/or of life and death.

Trying to put our worlds into perspective, I have come up with another way to look at things. I have borrowed the angle in part from modern physics.

You see, the physicists have been debating for decades whether light is a wave or a particle. I don’t think they have come to a conclusion. Because sometimes light acts as a wave and other times as particle.

Well, Robert has concluded that human beings are similar. Sometimes, we act and appear as particles. And other times, as waves.

This idea grew in my thinking while watching the Musselshell River roll by last summer as I sat on its banks most every day. 

We can think of the river, any river, or an ocean as a collection of drops or a flow of waves. Humans are like those drops and humanity like those waves. 

And within our form nature, we have all sorts of drops and particles and cells. And, they move in wave upon wave to maintain our existence.

At the deepest level of our beingness, those particles and cells are simply energy. While all these appear like matter to our eyes, all of us – atoms to cells to tissues to humans to planets and beyond – are really simply energy. Einstein and the quantum physicists established or re-established that truth decades ago.

If we could see the worlds as the Great Ones do, we would be thrilled to experience the intricacy, wonder and beauty of this universe in which we live. Even when we are standing still, we are – to those with eyes to see –  living, moving and changing constantly. Waves and particles of light within greater and greater ones.

If only we had the Eyes to See. Well, in the meantime, let us just draw on our imagination, the Inner Eye.

Then, we can all the wonder of it all to other great experiences On the Road Again and Again. Go God!

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