San Antonio Express from San Antonio, Texas • Page 76

$an Antonio ss Thursday, Sept. 28, 1972 Page 3-H FOR DIANE PIKE 'Love Project' Marks End of Quest HON FI LKERSON Copley News Service A long, intense quest has ended for Diane K. Pike. The end. though, really only marks a new beginning.

The widow of controversial former Bishop James A. Pike has been seeking new direction, new ways to serve, new meanings since the ordeal of her husband's death during a hike in Israel's Judean wilderness in 1969. The answers, she says, were with her all along. In herself. In the three years since Dr.

Pike's death, Diane (her easygoing manner makes Mrs. Pike far too has busied herself mostly with i i several books and carrying on the foundation created her a and renamed the Bishop Pike Foundation after his death. Now. after several discouraging attempts to rejuvenate the foundation, all that is behind her. she says.

"Just being." she will say. when asked what she is about. No longer are there any organizations to head, foundations to direct, to found. Presently. Diane is reluctant to call any place home.

Home, she says, is where she is and it will be where she will go. "I am, and it's beautiful." she beams. In other words. Diane K. Pike lias found herself.

At 34. tall, blonde and striking, she is at once gentle, warm and soft-spoken but firyi and strong in her convictions. She seems intimately aware of who she is. and is apt to brush aside admiration born of her status as widow to Dr. Pike.

She confided to a small group of old and new friends that that sort of superficial adoration chilled her recently dur ing an eastern lecture tour. At the same time. Diane obviously is intensely proud of her relationship to Bishop Pike and loyal to what he stood she stands for. But these days, the action in her life isn't with the now-disbanded Bishop Pike Foundation, but with a new. personal undertaking called "Love Project." Diane calls herself a "co-facilitator" in the project with Arleen Lorrance.

Love Project, bureaucratic as it may sound, is an intimately personal thing. It has no structural organization, sponsors no meetings, plans no programs. It attempts. Diane says, to reach people where they live, on a people-to-people basis. Instead of advocating change people and things, says Diane.

Love Project encourages people to actually lie change itself. It's teaching by personal example. really doing, rather than by lecturing and moralizing and philosophizing. Diane and Mrs. Lorrance say hope to be the catalyst whereby other stead of preaching or teaching undertake personal or small-group projects to create love, even be love.

People who espouse the Love Project will its "seekers" and seekers are those who share their feelings with others and feel responsible for helping them find opportunities to share, too. Love Projects can be as small as a smile and as big as the imagination. It could be baking cookies, even, for someone who doesn't like you. But always. Diane says, a Love Project starts inside yourself.

That's where Diane K. Pike's quest ended. And where it all began. A1 Carlo i listens to a client relate her problems. Confidence and communication are the keys to counseling at the center.

Photo Tarkv Tarsikes. Sometimes They Talk, But Mostly They Listen By MARY ANN SC HI HART In some areas of the country beautiful people are called BP's. The journalists who write about them are called BP watchers. The BP's fly to parties on the private jets, wear elegant clothes and associate with all the "right" people. In San Antonio there are beautiful although not necessarily all of the BP kind.

Some of them have joined together in an effort to reach out to others. What they have to offer is counseling. And the manner in which they offer it could go a long way towards reaching people with problems in the community. Their program, just opened Sept. 11.

is a drug and problem counseling service affiliated with though not a part of the San Antonio Free Clinic. Started by Sandra Nylander. the center is now administrated by Al Carlozzi and his staff of counselors. "Were here to serve the needs of the community." says Al. "We re here to serve people who perceive they have a problem, not necessarily with drugs.

Anyone who wants to work out his conflicts or problems is welcome here." "We don't want to make moral ments or threaten people." he emphasizes. "Our goal is to find meaningful alternatives to match the needs, interests and talents of people who come to us with their problems." The set-up is geared to the atmosphere of younger-thinking generation, al though both Sandra and Al repeatedly say the doors are open to everyone. To reach the center on West Woodlawn. one enters through a side door into a small, dark room. The path leads to a dimly lit conversation area illuminated by candles, softened by music and enhanced by incense.

Clients are greeted by counselors who usher them into private rooms. "Confidence is very important." Al notes. "If a parent can't communicate with a young person with a problem, we hope he will suggest his offspring comes here for counseling. Our service is free. But once a person comes here, what he says is confidential.

We don't direct or guide the client; we support him. The responsibility remains with the individual." There are three house rules at the center; two are clearlv drugs and no physical violence. The third is harder to put into words. To beauty pageant watchers it might be translated as "Be yourself." Sandra and Al have phrases of their one. "Let it be." and "Here and now." What they mean is "Be honest and tell us how you feel at this moment." Al is reluctant to discuss the educational background of his staff.

"You see," explains Sandra, "the important thing isn't what they've done, what they're doing now." In fact however, the staff members have received formal educational training and have worked professionally in counseling. More important than their backgrounds, according to Al. is the training they undergo before doing counseling at the center. Prior to its opening they participated in a training program focusing on the communication and sensitivity. Counselors are not recruited but accepted on a personal basis.

"We want to avoid an elaborate screening process." explains Sandra. "What we do want to do is let the community know of the services we have available." The center opens at 7 p.m. Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday nights. Collegians With Green Thumbs By MARILYN HOFFMAN Christian Science Monitor News Service LOS plants are a part of the gear that college students, both men and women, hauled back to their campus living quarters this year. It's all part of the ecology wave, but students have also discovered not only that growing tilings transform a dull dorm room, but that it is fun to cultivate one's own green thumb, A couple of university shoppers we saw selecting plants in a greenery emporium said, are very important to us.

We love Seventeen magazine, which visits a variety of colleges all over the country each year to find out what students are doing to their rooms, says, current fascination with ecology and in everything natural and organic means that almost every student wants plants." They are booming business at dime stores, plant shops, nurseries, and flower shops. Students and young marrieds are going through checkout lines with bushels of house plants popping out of their baskets. One student showed me an antique sugar bowl (which she bought for 50 cents minus its lid) soon destined to hold a flourishing philodendron in her room. Finding interesting antiques and old pottery, to woven part of the current adventure of hunting through junk shops, flea markets, and handcraft fairs. Even a plant grown from an avocado seed deserves an attractive set ting.

And hanging arrangements are great favorites in many dorms and small apartments. For those without much skill in bringing nature indoors, terrarium kits are available that take the guesswork out of indoor glowing. At the showroom in the Dcs Angeles home furnishings mart, we saw dozens of terrarium kits, shaped like flying saucers, balls, domes and mushrooms, and retailing for ST.98 to $59.98, depending on sizes and bases. Each terrarium comes with glass container, special potting soil, rocks, charcoal, and instruction booklet for assembling youi very own self-contained miniature garden. This showroom already has sold 20,000 terrariums in the Los Angeles area alone and sees the future with possibilities.

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