Some very special people

Sep 17, 2013

Last Thursday a whole array of interesting people walked into the large conference room in the Agape office to begin a Habits of the Heart course that I and my team are delivering.  I love this engagement, which runs from the simplest exterior questions like asking “What am I looking at right now?” to some of the very deepest issues of the heart.  Everyone is there because they want to move forward in some way on their own spiritual journey.  Over the next few weeks I’d like to introduce you to some of these interesting people.

Allan is a well known, colourful and influential figure in and around Birmingham. He was the owner/manager of Ronnie Scott’s famous Jazz Club in Broad Street, and what I now know is that his other five businesses had been propping up Ronnie Scott’s and the pressure increased to shut up shop.  A multimillionaire friend came to his rescue, baled him out financially, and made him a shareholder in the one new company.  But there was a price tag.  Ronnie Scott’s was to be turned into a lap-dancing club.

That was 11 years ago.  I met Allan 6 years later, when he allowed us access as “spiritual mentors” to the club staff, something which my team member Rezi spearheaded with my support.  A couple of years ago, after drawing a handsome salary from the club, Allan’s business partner asked him to take the club into insolvency.  Allan refused, and was promptedly thrown out of the club by his “friend”.  At this point he called me, and for a few weeks we had some highly productive and engaging spiritual conversations.  Allan spoke of the experience as “coming out of 20 years of darkness” – including even the years at Ronnie Scott’s.  But the trail went cold again as Allan became submerged in a legal battle his former business partner began waging against him.

I dropped in on Allan at home a few months ago to discover that the battle was still raging, but now I hear that his opponent at law has been ordered to pay a six figure sum in legal costs.  I hope that Allan will find a way to rise above the apparent vindictiveness going on here.  “He needs help”, Allan said to me last Thursday.  That’s a healthy response, I think.