Statement by Glenn Mariano, Paralegal & Relief Captain of the Schooner Pioneer, South Street Seaport Museum

I am originally from the island of Guam, an Unincorporated Territory of the United States, and have lived on the mainland United States continuously since August 1976. I graduated from Seattle University, with a B.A. in Liberal Arts Studies. I moved from Seattle, Washington to Brooklyn, New York in 1981. I am presently living in Jersey City, New Jersey. I make this statement to speak against the misrepresentations on the website of Michael Bluejay which are an attack against Aesthetic Realism.

As to the lie about “pressure,” Mr. Mariano says:  

Michael Bluejay’s claim that Aesthetic Realism is a cult is ridiculous. Contrary to what Mr. Bluejay says, I have never been pressured to attend seminars, presentations, and consultations. I love what I am learning! Before studying Aesthetic Realism, I was divorced and read many self-help books, looking for answers to why I had feelings of desperation and why I would quietly rage whenever I felt someone had wronged me, especially a woman. Though I found some of the books I read somewhat helpful, they fell short of really explaining logically what made for those feelings. When I attended a seminar by the consultation trio There Are Wives, I heard people (in this instance, women) being self-critical in an honest and humorous way. I saw that this education was about truly knowing and honestly criticizing the best and worst things in oneself in a scientific way. After this seminar, I knew I met the education I needed to explain those pained feelings of desperation, anger, and emptiness.

Today, I am proud of the relationship I have with my former wife, my daughter, and my mother. There is a newfound respect among the four of us. My former wife has had telephone consultations from California. I am as sure as anything in this world that the good feeling between us would not be without the knowledge of Aesthetic Realism, where I am learning to be truly interested in how another person sees and what she is hoping for. I am able also to speak to my mother in a new way, to be interested in how she is seeing her life and the people she knows. She also has had telephone consultations, from Washington. I feel closer to her as I want to understand the things she has met in her life—including what she experienced as a child in Japan-occupied Guam.

I am grateful to be learning what it means to strengthen a woman and have good will, in my relationship with the woman I love deeply, Lore Elbel-Bruce. After my divorce, I had several relationships with women that ended painfully. I am now hopeful and enjoying learning how to love a woman honestly.

As to the Family:    

Like Michael Bluejay, my parents were divorced when I was young and I can see how a person, especially a child, can be angry about what made for their parents’ break-up. Because of what I’ve learned in Aesthetic Realism, I am now able to use my parents’ divorce, not as an excuse to be angry with the world, but as a means to learn about them and myself. I had the opportunity to speak to my father about this time in our lives when he was visiting Maryland from Guam in 2000. I was able to speak to him without the awkwardness that often accompanies years of family separation. I learned about his own regrets, the feelings I never knew he had, how he saw things then and now. It was one of the biggest days in my life.  

As to “membership,” “recruiting,” and free will:       

Bluejay would have you believe that you have no free will and your freedom of expression is suppressed. This is untrue. In fact, it’s been the opposite. I have always been encouraged to speak openly in my consultations. There is no “membership” in Aesthetic Realism, and I do not “recruit” new “members.” I am not “fanatical[ly] devot[ed]” to Eli Siegel, but I am tremendously grateful to him for this beautiful way of seeing my life and the world I am related to. I know I am a better person because of Aesthetic Realism.

Mr. Bluejay’s web page reflects his desire to make himself important at the expense of damaging the reputation of Eli Siegel and Aesthetic Realism. What he has done is irresponsible and very harmful, and I find it surprising that he could launch this attack and not expect the people who value Aesthetic Realism to rise to defend it and themselves. This is my purpose here: to take a stand against this unjust attack. Truth is on Aesthetic Realism’s side and no matter how many lies or innuendos are hurled at it, in the end, the truth will be known: Aesthetic Realism is the education that explains a person’s greatest desire—to like the world honestly—and it also shows with logic and urgency that the world has a structure which is deeply worthy of our respect.