My Share of Sand (A Calabasas Fable)...Slightly Revised Edition

18-Party...revised

DIMENSION34™ AUTUMN SEMINAR

SEA CLIFF BUCKWHEAT MEETING ROOM

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 23

11:00-Noon—Meet and greet with Riko Hara and Marcia St. Pierre

Noon-1:30—"Buying the Beach When All You Need is an Hourglass"

1:30-2:15—lunchbreak

2:15-4:00—"How to be a Japanese Maple Among the Redwoods"

11:17 A.M.

As teenage girls, Colinda and Monique are already part of the most self-conscious group on the planet. Being out in public with their parents doubled the self-consciousness. And being, far and away, the youngest people in the Sea Cliff Buckwheat Meeting Room (the hotel's other meeting rooms are called Box Honeysuckle, Seaside Daisy, Star Lily and Yerba Buena), it was like a bucket of ice-cold self-conscious getting poured on their heads.

While the Quarles family waited in a long line to meet the gurus behind Dimension34™, Colinda studied a sheet of paper with her apology on it. Yes, her parents had written out an apology that she would need to memorize before it was their turn in the meet-and-greet.

I'm Colinda Quarles. I'm 15 years old. My parents decided to make our house a Dimension34 house. But I let my selfishness get in the way of full enjoyment of your program. I disrespected all the timeless ideals that Dimension34 represents. I have promised to do better.

Monique, not required to make a statement, passed the time by counting the number of sqaures in the room's carpet. The counting was a distraction not only from the unpleasantness of the situation, but from the sheer patheticness of even being reduced to counting squares in a carpet.

After an eternity, the Quarles family finally reached the front of the line. Colinda closed her eyes briefly, the way you might after a nurse tells you "This is gonna hurt a little bit."

"I'm Brad Quarles, this is my life partner Geneva, our two daughters. Marcia I know we've met before. Ms. Hara, it's a privilege to get to meet you. Your philosophy has revolutionized our family's life." Brad cheerfully shook the hands of the two trim middle-aged women. "As a family, we started the Dimension34 program a few weeks ago. We all reduced down to thrity-four personal items, and—"

"Hold on," Marcia St. Pierre interrupted. "You said everyone in the family?"

"Yeah." Brad and Geneva both smiled eagerly.

"How old are your daughters?" Marcia asked.

"Fifteen and thirteen."

Immediately, as if lightning had struck, Marcia's face turned sullen. She even shook her head a little. She started saying something in Japanese to Riko Hara, who instantly shook her head and gave a "stop" gesture with both hands. "Only people twenty-five and older should go on Dimension34," Marcia said disdainfully. "It's too early in their personal development for a teenager to start minimalizing. We mention that in the Dimension34 guide." Riko Hara continued on in her native language, placing particular emphasis on mimoto, the Japanese word for identity. "A teenager," explained Marcia, "should be allowed to develop their own personal identity. Ownership of personal goods is very important at that age. Something as simple as, say, shoes, are nonetheless something that a young person has possession of, and their relation to the world is mediated by the items they own and how they integrate them into their daily lives."