FONDLY, BOB
Pull up a chair. I'll start.
"MAD GENIUS"
I wrote, walked away, walked, wrote, and finally faced my muse (and my friend KK who insisted "this is a gem, Susan.)
COMPLETE THIS! ​
This story grew into an odd container of diversity, unique people and animals, the bones of experience, a demonstration of dreams and dreaming. My voice grew into a conversational dialogue, my droll sense of humor showing like a slip under the hem of a dress. Childhood observations of good and evil behaviors, candid family horrors, independent Jungian studies, the dangers of unconscious projections played out in personal or public affairs,... Othello and Iago—it’s all there.
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"For authenticity like none other you have ever read, this book is recommended - quirky, radically artistic, wholly unique, and individualistic, there is nothing to compare it to!​" ​
“MAD GENIUS,”
Jennie Louwes, Reedsy
LET'S START WITH THE EPILOGUE FIRST.
LIKE DESSERT, ONLY DIFFERENT.
Are not all brave, beautiful immortals aware that time raps at every window? I cannot claim to answer that question, but I can report that emboldened by beauty, strength, and dreams, youth has no appetite for desserts offered on a cart 40 years hence. Who doesn't remember breezing by also, lacking awareness or interest during the gloriously happy days they have lived? What wasn’t easy when retrospect arrived was whether wisdom held its hand or did it drag a gaggle of brats kicking like nightmares, misdeeds, and victimhood lacking cause? And besides, why write of it? Who cares? The players in all dramas scatter and the ashes settle. Why tell my story? Why write about people who once lived in places unknown, whose concerns were concluded, their joys burst like bright balloons, the echoes of their laughter long silenced?
abigail
Must I have chosen a point? Perhaps rather I just wanted a portrait of myself celebrating the many riches I have known. Oh, but I have barely begun. Might age provide rest’s luxuries of reflection and silence? Might responsibility not still rise from a wizened elder stick figure tottering in sidewalk traffic, driving slow in the fast lane, or taking too long searching a chalkboard menu with the day’s special, or simply soup, would soup be better what with the snow outside and all? Stories spoken by elders, after all, are frequently dismissed as whimsical fantasies told by jesters born in yesterday’s timepieces held by the hands of laughing ignorance both young and old. But then, who mocks the storytelling of time, mocks the mirror into which they preen.
...and the heart ponders, whither?
WHEN life demands
A NEW direction...
ENTER THE:
but WHITHER YOU ASK ?
THE I CHING
"A BOOK OF CHANGES"
Please note:
I don't pretend to be a scholar. Rather, I am a humble, subjective observer of the contemporary West. Childhood encounters with actors, behaviors, values, and consequences drove my fascination with good and evil. More than 50 years ago, I discovered both Jungian theory and the "I CHING." Each still explands and colors my observations. I hasten to refer the reader to scholars whose work is grounded in the original works lest my Western narrative proves insufficient.
This piece is a developing effort. Like Fondly Bob, I "walk away" to other work, and return as the muse leads.
you ...
... have now wandered into a mysterious place of synchronicitites, where ancient Chinese ghosts observed the order of things, who essentially examned the properties of good and evil, and suggested advantages and decline in each of the 64 hexagrams they defined as human conditions. They taught observation, discernment, ethics, and projected potential outcomes whether advance, decline, or retreat.
For the purpose of this work, good is that which creates and binds. Happenstance might divide or destroy that which is created, however is distinguished from evil which sustains division, intends destruction, or invents deception. If the reader deems what cannot be denied, but which cannot be explained, that it contains evil intent, then flee of course. But first, might you know how evil hopes to expand its territory by advancing what you define as good?
... THE ORACLE DOES NOT solicit inquiries. Rather, it responds to an inquiry by suggesting the Will of Heaven. For centuries life's pilgrims have sought their ways by consulting the Oracle. For centuries accusations of irrelevance and evil have failed to erase the genius of the I CHING. I offer my Western experience with this quiet, humble system of thought. I pray that my observations might assist your inquiries.
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