June 8, In New York City, Evaluation of the walk
This is the day when all the walkers from all the routes of the World Peace March got together to discuss and evaluate the walk. I was up at 6 a.m. to write notes for the report of the New Orleans walk and then took the subway at 8 o'clock for the one-hour trip to Riverside Church where the plenary session of the walk was to be held.

It began with the Buddhist prayer which lasted for half the morning. We chanted for two and a half hours. Toward the end of the prayer, everyone was invited to offer incense to Buddha. Most of the people did. This was done by walking in single file to the altar. Each person would take a small pinch of incense and sprinkle it on the altar.

After the prayer three people spoke. I was so sleepy I even slept through much of Fuji`s speech. After the speakers, we were told that we were two and a half hours behind schedule and would have time for only one report, that of the L.A. walk. What a disappointment! This was the first time we had all gotten together. A valuable sharing time had been lost.

After lunch we returned to the church and each route met by itself to discuss three assigned topics: l) the evaluation of the walk, 2) where do we go from here, and 3) spirituality. We had three hours to discuss the three topics

The New Orleans walkers discussed only the first topic. We formed a circle, taking turns talking about the walk from our individual perspectives. Most agreed that the walk before DC was almost perfect when compared with the walk after DC. We had our problems, but at least there had been a strong sense of unity. Our unity had been destroyed when we joined with the L.A. walk. We all concluded that in the future different routes should not be joined before arrival at the final destination. The monks concurred in this conclusion.

After supper in the cafeteria of the church, we made our way to the edge of Harlem, to the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, the largest cathedral in the world, we were told. Our seats were so far back that we couldn't see anything at all, and this far back the acoustics were so bad we understand little.

After half an hour Doug, Bill, and I left to go for coffee and to pass the time until we could return to Our Lady of Victory Church after the bingo games were over at 11 o'clock. We saw a few other peace walkers at the coffee shop. I was glad to see Kajo sitting at a table with Sandy, Mary, and Jane

_ Everyone was nearly exhausted when the man with the key to the room where our luggage was locked arrived after midnight. We looked forward to sleeping late tomorrow. The next three days were supposedly rest days. Nothing had been planned until the rally on Saturday. In the morning we found out different. go to page 53