After two years of offering ongoing community classes, we have decided to discontinue our Monday Night Classes. The demands of our business have grown substantially over the past two years, and although attendance in our classes has been steady and often quite strong, we feel the demand is not great enough to warrant the time, energy, and commitment required of our staff.

There will be a two-part series that will serve as our last and final classes, entitled, "Rolling with the Punches: The key to our well-being." The classes will be held at our office from 6:00 - 7:30 pm on Monday, November 7th (Part 1) and Monday, December 5th (Part 2). In appreciation for the support and interest of our past participants, these classes will be free of charge.

Time: 6:00 - 7:30 pm
Cost: Free
Where:210 Morris Street, La Conner, WA
Questions? Call (360) 466-5200 or e-mail at mail@pranskyandassociates.com

Papers
Arab-Israeli Peace Initiative
Introduction
A peaceful settlement to the Arab-Israeli crisis has been an elusive dream for many years. Experienced diplomats, spiritual leaders, and lay people have worked long and hard with little to show for their efforts. In fact, in many ways, the situation is worse today than it was twenty years ago. I am putting forth a proposal for peace and I ask you, the reader, to open your mind and heart and consider my words here very carefully. This is what I propose:

Israel would adopt two strategies: a proactive strategy calculated to permanently resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict and a defensive strategy to minimize loss of Israeli lives and property while the proactive strategy is resolving the conflict. The defensive strategy would entail taking whatever action is necessary, short of a preemptive strike, to protect Israel and the Israeli people from foreign threat. I will leave the defensive strategy to the experts and put forth in this paper an outline of the proactive strategy including the logic behind it and its political implications. I am not suggesting that the burden falls on Israel to take the initiative articulated in this article. I see Israel's taking this initiative as just one possibility.
Continued...

Thinking Outside the Box: What is the Box and How Did it Get There?
By George Pransky
If you want to think outside the box, you might entertain the following questions. What is the box anyway? What is the box made of? Where is this box? Who made these boxes? What is in the box? And, of course, what is outside the box?

If the most common thinking had a voice, I think it would answer those questions like so. The box is the current reality, the way things are right now. It's the conventions, the powers that be, the way things have always been done. What is it made of? It is made of reality! The box is made of rules, regulations, standard operating procedures, history, all those ways of doing things that people respect as "the right way" or "the only way." Who made these boxes? The box was made by society, organizations, the most common thinking. Outside the box is beyond this reality.

I suggest that the box exists within a six-inch area between our two ears. It isn't made of "reality," as it appears to be. It is made of thought. Those thoughts might appear to be real to the individual who thinks them, but only because that individual has lost sight of the illusory nature of thought. When that individual remembers that thought is only made to look real through consciousness, the box will suddenly appear to be constructed by thought alone.
Continued...