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emntk
Oh great to hear! I thought I'd lost it on the Molokai detail. There is also a Bruce Butler who works in local politics Oahu. He also is quite the scientist. Does anyone know if he worked in a scientific field?
Anything is possible. A lot can happen in 20 years. The Bruce I knew (and admired, I might add) was a scruffy surfer bum. Always wore sandals, shorts, and a crumpled, dirty Hawaiian shirt. He never seemed to need to work. He was shorter and not as handsome or charismatic and ethereal as his brother. He had more testosterone and liked women. Bruce was earthy with a wicked, black sense of humor. He used to point out a lot of the hypocrisies in the group. He always made me laugh. He used to make all the pure bramacharini girls uncomfortable with his comments. He would pop in and out of CB's life. At one point he really tried to be a follower, bowing down to his brother for awhile and then disappearing. They would even fight and have words with each other. Many of CB’s followers were very critical of Bruce, but CB never put him down publicly.
The last time I saw him during this time period was when he was sneaking off to the McDonald's burger joint down the street from ‘Down to Earth’ in Honolulu. There was a big picture window, so it was easy to see him as I walked by. I walked in to say “hey”. I didn't give a shit if "devotees" saw me there. (I had already made my plans to leave). And neither did he. He said the French fries and ice cream were vegetarian and that's what he was eating. He just thought the group was too "heavy" for him. People would try to get close to him because he was god’s rep’s brother. That bothered him. But they would find out he had a disturbing and irreverent bite and sting to his personality, along with a loyalty. “Bros before hoes”. He was a very intelligent guy and it would not surprise me if he went back to college and got into science, or on the other hand politics with his brother. It’s possible he finally “surrendered” to his bro. Everyone thought he was older because he looked so wind and sun damaged. I think he was younger, but I could be mistaken.
I liked Bruce for the same reason I liked Sudama Vipra Swami so much. They both were guiless truth sayers. No tact, no diplomacy. Comments were straight and often to the bone. I was always so busy “serving” CB that I didn’t get to know them as well as I would have liked.
Also, the Louisiana connection confirms W. Butler. CB was born in Louisiana. I am really curious if WB mentions CB at all in the book.