A Tribute to MANAS and a MEMORIAL TO HENRY GEIGER, its creator.

            There are many kinds of magnificent achievements in this world -- some of them we didn't pay much attention to, like a life well-lived, let us say, or a character grown to rich maturity. Sometimes, it is a group achievement; sometimes, it is a one who is the engine who sparks the creation.

            After 41 years, one magnificent achievement has come to an end -- and yet, not, as I will later explain.  What am I talking about?  It is MANAS.  When I speak of MANAS, I speak of Henry Geiger who single-handedly created this tiny but potent weekly, first published in 1948.  It is my belief that many of you were subscribers.  For more than 25 years, I have been learning from this publication, so encompassing and profound, despite its smallness. 

            MANAS is a Sanskrit word meaning "human being" or, the thinker, MANAS is an 8-page periodical – no pictures, no writer attribution.  It is organized in such a way that every week – it is a weekly – engages your fascinated attention.  My reading method is always the same.  I start with the lead article, that has its own title, like "Our Neglected Planet" or "The Puzzle of Human Nature" or "Agriculture: An Unsolved Problem."  Then I turn to the departments.  First,  Children and Ourselves.  Can we ever talk about children without including ourselves?  Then, the Review. It was MANAS that helped me to realize the importance of reviewing old books.  These are the books that send us back to wisdoms so easy to forget in this hubbub we call daily life. 

            After Review, I go to the department called Frontiers, of Religion, Science and Education.  Here I learn about the growing edge of our kindly, caring, creating, brave old and new world, stories I wouldn't have gotten to know in any other way.  And still one more thing: the editorial written by editor Henry Geiger, commenting on the articles.  In MANAS, this is the company I keep: Schumacher, Gandhi, Wendell Berry, Aldo Leopold, William Blake, Socrates, Whitehead, Thoreau, Loren Eisley – I give you a partial list.  There are some 250 authors that have been called forth in MANAS, and some 75 current publications quoted.

            So do I finish reading my weekly MANAS.  Besides waiting for the next one, what was there to do?  Dig without looking into the growing pile of old MANAS copies.  Often, it was as though I hadn't read it before.  There was so much to savor, which one reading could not reveal.

            I have a letter from the MANAS publishing staff to us readers.  In it they acknowledge us as we feel: a community dedicated to intelligent idealism.  They knew of our sorrow at the ending of MANAS, and they told us of the profound gratitude that was being expressed by people everywhere, at Henry Geiger's unique gift to the world.

            But, as I told you at  the beginning, MANAS is not dead!  There are back issues and volumes to be ordered, and a listing of those 250 authors and 75 publications for your continuing acquaintance.  The MANAS of 30 years ago still brings nourishment.  As Henry Geiger said, what thinkers have said to us cannot be used or dated. 

            Henry Geiger had six weeks to experience our outpouring of appreciation for 41 years of MANAS.  He died on February 15, aged 80.  His life was spent doing when he enjoyed most:  pursuing and sharing a life of the mind.