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Where is Your Real Home? Some final notes on Curtis Kelsey’s Biography

By John Taylor; 17 July, 2007

Curtis Kelsey often said, “It is better to wear out than rust out.” This bit of wisdom has been confirmed by thousands of medical studies, all of which found beneficial effects from social activity, diet, exercise, even board games and card games. Keep active. Your brain, like your muscles, works on the principle of “use it or lose it.” Kelsey also often quoted the Master’s saying, “without struggle life has no meaning,” and another, that “this life is a workshop, not an art gallery.” (Story of Curtis Kelsey, p. 175) I especially like these since I read lately such little saws are among the most remembered lessons that parents can give their children. They are our biggest legacy, more impressive than any money or property we can leave them. They live on in their minds and are used long after we are dead and buried. So do as Curtis Kelsey did, remember your proverbs, memorize your quotations and repeat them liberally whenever there are children or young people around.

And – if I may offer you some advice – when you think of your retirement, think of being ten times as socially active as you were when you were working. That is the ideal way to spend long sunset years. Do not sit alone in your room and vegetate before the television, as many oldsters I know do. That is dying before you die, as Baha’u’llah Himself implied.

After the passing of the Master, one of the first things Shoghi Effendi did, after the Will had been read and it was known that he had been appointed Guardian, was to express his gratitude to Curtis Kelsey for his work installing the new lighting system in Bahji and on Mount Carmel. This simple expression of appreciation gave the young man an important lesson in leadership, one that we could all learn from. Here is how Nathan Rutstein describes the incident,

 

“In a few days, Shoghi Effendi was back among the friends, recovered from the initial shock of being appointed Guardian, but obviously a young man with a lot more on his mind than when he arrived in Haifa.

One evening, Shoghi Effendi noticed Curtis in the street and asked that he join him in a walk on Mount Carmel Avenue, which led to the Shrine of the Bab. Curtis knew that it wasn't going to be an ordinary walk, for the young man walking beside him was now more than a faithful grandson of 'Abdu'l-Baha: he was the Guardian. Maybe, he wondered, the Guardian would give him a special assignment. Curtis didn't know what to expect.

As they walked up the road, children were dancing in the shadows cast over the street by the floodlight perched at the base of the Shrine. Electricity was new to the people of Haifa. No one had it in their homes. Seeing shadows in the evening was odd; and the children turned them into a form of recreation. Of course, none of them knew that the man who made the shadows possible was in their midst and beside him was the 'sign of God' on earth.

As they walked up the mountain, Shoghi Effendi turned to Curtis and thanked him for the wonderful work he had done in installing the three electrical plants and pointed out how much the Master appreciated his efforts.

The praise made Curtis uncomfortable; and he blushed, saying, 'Well, Shoghi Effendi, I was very happy doing the work for the Master, and I want no credit.'

The Guardian stopped walking and looked into Curtis' eyes and said firmly, 'Nevertheless appreciation goes with your service.'

When Curtis tried to make light of his work, the Guardian grew firmer, making an issue of the importance of sincerely thanking a person for the services he renders. For Curtis it was an important lesson. After that experience, he always made sure to share his gratitude with the person who did I work for him, however small the task.

Several days later Shoghi Effendi was gone, off to Germany, and then Switzerland, for an unspecified amount of time, where he would be alone, fortifying himself for something he had never planned on doing. Someone other than himself had committed him to a life-long challenge that he had not consciously prepared for; it would be a time of sorting out his thoughts, in discovering, with God's help, how to direct an infant World Faith toward maturity.

With Shoghi Effendi in Europe, the Greatest Holy Leaf took charge. Curtis and Husayn had virtually completed the lighting project. Only a few superficial things were left to fix. There was nothing more to do. The Guardian hadn't given Curtis any assignments. The thought of returning to America began to surface. Strange, but Curtis didn't think of that powerful nation across the Atlantic as home. In his heart, Curtis knew that his real home was in Haifa and Bahji. He remembered how his mother, who had never been to the Holy Land, would comment on how her real home was where the Master dwelt.”

(He Loved and Served, The Story of Curtis Kelsey, by Nathan Rutstein, George Ronald, Oxford, pp. 104-105)

 

Roy Wilhelm was an exemplary teacher of the Faith insofar as his student in the Faith, Curtis Kelsey, became his life-long friend as well as his student. Thus in order to fully understand Kelsey you have to grasp something of his teacher. So, here is the story of Wilhelm’s conversion and pilgrimage, as well as a fascinating tongue-lashing he got from the Master, as described in Rutstein’s biography of Kelsey.

 

The fact that Curtis (Kelsey) was helping him build a woodworking shop didn't surprise Roy (Wilhelm). Not because he had forgotten what he had said to Curtis ten years back when they were alone in the Kelsey basement. No, he had not forgotten. But Roy, despite his pragmatic nature, had learned that what is mystical can be real. He became convinced of that through an experience that shook the very roots of his conservative sensibilities.

Roy's mother was a Baha'i, one of the earliest believers in the United States. But Roy, though tolerant of his mother's beliefs, couldn't see himself fitting into the Baha'i pattern. He was satisfied with his life-style. He was financially secure, a respected entrepreneur. So he pursued life as he had done for years.

You might say he was a creature of habit. Every work day Roy would get up at the same time, wear dark conservative suits, buy the Herald Tribune from the same newsstand, and take the same train to Wall Street. When he returned home in the afternoon, he would take the same train, and stop off at the same flower shop to buy his mother flowers. Upon arriving home, he would regularly go to his room, remove his suit coat, replacing it with a dinner-jacket, sit on his bed to remove his shoes and put on slippers.

One day that pattern was altered, but what happened was purely involuntary. He was sitting on his bed, changing his shoes, when his room was suddenly transformed. The walls were whitewashed, and there was a divan. Standing next to Roy was a majestic figure with a long black beard, dressed in what appeared to be an oriental gown. The figure approached Roy, taking off His ring and placing it on Roy's finger and removing Roy's ring and placing it on His finger.

Roy was riveted to the bed, too startled to feel fear, so awed that he couldn't utter a word. When whatever had developed before him faded away, he tried to analyze what had happened, but he was baffled. This practical man was not prone to psychic experiences. Visions were things he heard his mother's friends talk about; and he secretly felt that half of them were less than mentally balanced.

Roy didn't tell anyone about the experience. Certainly not his friends, because they would most certainly consider him crazy; and had he related the incident to his mother, she would resume her campaign to draw him into the Baha'i Faith. But eventually he shared his secret, despite the fact that he had planned never to reveal it. A power greater than him unlocked his heart.

When Roy's mother received word that she could go to the Holy Land to see 'Abdu'l-Baha, she asked if her son would escort her. It didn't take much to persuade him to go along, because he didn't want his mother travelling alone to a strange and dangerous place halfway around the world.

Seeing the Master in 1907 was difficult, because he was still a prisoner of the Ottoman Empire. So when they reached the Haifa area, they had to be smuggled into the Master's house at night, lest the enemies of the Faith and the Covenant-breakers spotted the Wilhelms. When 'Abdu'l-Baha saw Roy, He approached him with outstretched arms and hugged him so hard that Roy thought several of his ribs had been cracked. The very proper and Victorian Roy had never been hugged by a man before. It happened so swiftly that he didn't have time to retreat from the Master's embrace. Besides, the hug convinced him that he was most welcome, and whatever reservations he had about the safety and sanity of the place vanished.

Upon the urging of the Master, Roy went to 'Akka and Bahji. Before reaching Bahji, the carriage he was riding in stopped at the Garden of Ridvan. There, one of the Persians led him to a small white house where Baha'u'llah had stayed whenever He visited the Garden. As he entered, he sensed that he had been there before. It was the same room in which that extraordinary figure exchanged rings with him. Roy jumped back, retreating quickly to the garden, shaken. He could no longer hide the secret; he felt a strong urge to share his experience with 'Abdu'l-Baha - nobody else.

You had a spiritual experience,' the Master told Roy. 'had wedded you to His Faith.'

From that day on Mr Roy C. Wilhelm was a Baha'i, never entertaining even the thought of divorcing himself from the Faith.

Curtis learned from Roy, mostly by example. Steadfastness and firmness in the Covenant seemed to be reflected in almost everything Roy did. The Faith was the primary force in his life. He knew what Baha'u'llah represented to the world; without Him there was death. And he understood 'Abdu'l-Baha's relationship to the Blessed Beauty. What the Master said was what Baha'u'llah would say. When 'Abdu'l-Baha asked Roy to do something, he did it without hesitation. And the Master knew how strong Roy's faith was. That's why he was often called upon to do what most other believers weren't mature enough to do.

During one of the Master's visits to New York City in 1912, he called Roy at his office, asking him to come to the Hotel Ansonia where He was staying. Roy left immediately. When he entered the presence of 'Abdu'l-Baha, he noticed a number of friends, including several Persians, seated around the room. The Master had Roy sit in the middle of the room, and began to talk to him about the importance of obedience, in a reprimanding manner, waving his finger at Roy. Most other people would have whimpered and cowered, or stomped out of the room; but Roy didn't flinch. He was puzzled, but never questioned the Master.

Actually, 'Abdu'l-Baha had Roy submit to the tongue-lashing in order to reach a Persian believer who was in the room and needed spiritual shoring-up, because he was drifting toward Covenant-breaking. The true target of 'Abdu'l-Baha's Message was reached and he remained firm in the Faith. In time, Roy learned what purpose he had served that day at the Hotel Ansonia.

from: He Loved and Served, The Story of Curtis Kelsey, by Nathan Rutstein, George Ronald, Oxford, pp. 24-27