“Hey, I noticed your child on TV!”
The voice reached me from behind as I walked down the hall of my Scientology Church. Throughout the break up second that elapsed between listening to the voice and turning round to see its supply, the thought flashed: “That sounds acquainted, however is it anybody I do know?”
Then I noticed who it was: David Miscavige, ecclesiastical chief of the Scientology faith. He was smiling broadly. “It was on a business throughout a Lakers sport! It was hilarious! I laughed my head off!”
Right here David Miscavige was, an individual I’d by no means had a dialog with, had solely seen from a distance of 35 rows, give or take, from viewers to stage, whose 24/7 job is defending, preserving and increasing a spiritual motion involving hundreds of thousands of parishioners and 11,000 Church buildings, Missions and teams spanning some 170 nations, taking the time to inform me he’d seen my child in a 15-second business on tv and the way a lot he favored it.
“Thanks,” I mentioned, and took his provided hand.
“You guys should be pumped!” he grinned, shaking my hand. After which—with a wave and a salute—he was off.
For the following couple of minutes, my buddies and I watched as the girl spoke and spoke and spoke some extra, David Miscavige and the opposite executives listening intently.
“How does he try this?” I puzzled. But he did. He acknowledged me, knew who I used to be, knew who my child was. He will need to have regarded up the younger man, discovered that he was from a Scientologist household and made some extent of stopping me within the corridor and letting me know what an ideal factor all of it was. Then, throughout our transient interchange, he made me really feel like I used to be the one particular person on the planet and that it was the excessive level of his day to cease and congratulate me on my child’s appearing efficiency in a tv business.
One other time I used to be eating with buddies at a restaurant on board the Freewinds spiritual retreat. It was a particular conference and plenty of ministers and executives of the Church had been in attendance. A somewhat, shall we embrace, garrulous lady sitting subsequent to me all of a sudden cried, “Look! There they’re!” Following the route of her pointed finger, we noticed David Miscavige eating at a desk with Church executives and native dignitaries.
Earlier than I might shush her, she acquired up saying, “There’s one thing I REALLY NEED to go over with them, and I’m going to speak to them RIGHT NOW.”
“No, no! They’re most likely busy discussing…” I started, however she was already on her solution to the desk.
Peering by way of closed fingers, I noticed an astonishing sight: David Miscavige noticed the girl approaching and immediately stood up, adopted promptly by the opposite six or seven folks on the desk. Mr. Miscavige pulled an empty chair from one other desk because the others made room, and invited her to have a seat subsequent to him, then waited for her to be seated earlier than resuming his seat.
For the following couple of minutes, my buddies and I watched as the girl spoke and spoke and spoke some extra, David Miscavige and the opposite executives listening intently. When she had completed talking, he replied at size—to her obvious satisfaction—shook palms together with her, then rose as she rose and bowed barely to her as she left, not resuming his seat once more till she was fully away from the desk and on her means again to us.
“Properly!” she mentioned, sitting again down with us. “I’m VERY glad I spoke to him. It’s a lot better now.”
Neither I nor anybody else requested her what “it” was. We had been assured, nevertheless, that David Miscavige couldn’t solely make no matter involved the girl higher however that, as chief of our faith and a unprecedented gentleman, he might make something he touched not simply higher, however first-rate—and accomplish that with easy effectiveness.
Scientology Founder L. Ron Hubbard wrote, “When one is fortunate sufficient to get to fulfill and discuss to the women and men who’re on the prime of their professions, one is struck by an remark typically made that they’re simply concerning the nicest folks you ever met. That is among the causes they’re on the prime: they fight, most of them, to deal with others properly.”
I’ve lengthy been aware of that quote. It’s from The Option to Happiness, a nonreligious ethical code based mostly on frequent sense that swiftly impressed a world motion reaching hundreds of thousands on how you can dwell a wealthy and moral life. And although I do know that passage by coronary heart, not often, if ever, have I seen it in motion.
In a world too typically immersed in self-importance and intolerance of others, it’s comforting to know there’s a David Miscavige amongst us—pushed solely by a function to assist others and centered on the best good—a exceptional chief who routinely makes selections that have an effect on continents, but who cares sufficient to share the fun of 1 proud father like me.
By John Evans, initially revealed on STAND.
