“Change Was Happening”
“The outer world really was being affected by the creation and growth of the Palace of Perfect Wisdom. People in every country felt as though the very air they breathed was somehow more satisfying these days. People began to smile more and frown less. A great deal of petty squabbling that had been such a feature of daily life now disappeared. The news media started to highlight the positive things that were happening in the city, state, and nation. Groups that had for years been antagonistic to one another began to search for and find some common ground. All this is not to say that daily life had been revolutionized, only that it had been changed. If paradise might be conceived as a fully bloomed garden, people were now seeing the merest shoots breaking out of the ground. But it was the atmosphere even more than the actual events that most clearly signalized the changes that were happening. For the first time in a long time, people felt hopeful that long-lasting discords and enmities might find resolution. They began to put their attention on solutions rather than just problems. Acknowledging their difficulties, people started to believe that with goodwill they might find a way out of them. Optimism was gradually edging out pessimism in the prevailing emotional weather conditions.” (from “Palace of Perfect Wisdom”)