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Opening the Sealed Book
Background Information
I keep thinking of how to make this make sense and I keep coming back to that day in Barnes and Noble...
(Hang in there. Hopefully, this'll come full circle.)
Noël and I used to walk around all the time. Well, to be honest, I did most of the walking and she rode around in the backpack until we reached the fountain, or park, or playground, or wherever we were heading. Kept me in pretty good shape back then.
She loved riding in that thing.
Anyway, one day we were in the bookstore and I was browsing the new releases. Noël kept shifting, turning as if to look at something behind her. Finally, I gave in and turned around so she could more easily see whatever it was that had drawn her attention.
Now, I can't be sure that this was somehow significant or just a "coincidence," but right behind us, from the floor to the top of the shelves, was a display of Drosnin's The Bible Code.
I looked back at her (that's a mirror in my hand in the beach shot -- the pink thing hanging by my left arm in the other pic was the new and improved model for rear-viewing) and dang if it wasn't those books that seemed to have her captivated. I looked derisively at the scandalous tomes and started to walk away but Noël jerked the pack (her signal for wanting me to stop).
Hmmm...
Remember, at this point I thought Drosnin was a slime ball trying to cash in on millennium fever by conjuring a story about codes hidden in the Bible. I considered this book akin to what BlindEye refers to as grocery store newspapers -- not the type of fabrication I was about to waste my time reading.
I checked again and Noël's still looking at those books. I thought what the heck, grabbed a copy, opened it at random, and began reading with a self-important smirk on my face.
Let's see what this idiot has to say...
A while later, after Noe had jerked the pack a number of times (this time to indicate we should get moving again), I reluctantly replaced the book. I wound up shoplifting most of the contents on return trips, the whole time thinking:
It can't be true. It just can't. But...
Meanwhile, a dear friend from college was seriously injured in a freak accident. I, along with many others converged on a hospital in Fresno about a week later (when he could begin to receive visitors). In order to get some one-on-one time, I arrived early and quickly found myself in way over my head.
You see, Mike (that's his name too) was a fireman, triathlete, family man, community leader... you get the idea. No way, I thought, could a biking accident cause him lasting physical harm.
Wrong again.
All Mike could do at that time was blink his eyes from the rotating bed, his paralyzed body strapped in place, head encased in a halo. Despite what I had been told, I was totally unprepared to see my friend like this. Much less was I prepared to do a lengthy monologue.
After about five minutes of sputtering what seemed to be empty words, I thought of that Bible Code story. Mike's a very devout Christian and I asked if he'd ever heard of it. Two blinks. No. Did he want to hear about it? One blink.
After exhausting my knowledge of the subject, I asked if he wanted to learn more about it. One blink. Okay...
On my way home I stopped and bought a copy of the book. I studied that sucker inside and out trying to grasp the code along with the essential elements of the mind-boggling story. It became my mission to understand it well enough to pass the details along in a coherent, cohesive manner. I'd made some progress but it wasn't until I was shown how it worked that it all fell into place. (I'll get to that part on the next page.)
You want to hear something funny?
When I went back to see Mike, he not only had no recollection of our initial conversation, he said that he didn't need to hear about a code to believe in God. He wasn't even interested in any of the details.
It turned out that most of my friends felt the same way -- believers or not, most of 'em couldn't care less about such an unlikely story.
Man, here I was with information passed on from who knows where, and hardly anyone seemed the least bit interested. It really did feel like I was supposed to pass the info along but when I tried, all I seemed to be good at was making eyes glaze over in boredom.
It wasn't until I launched this site that people began contacting me wanting to hear more (or pointing out how wrong I was and why).
Sheesh! Now that I've got the opportunity to share with folks who are actually interested, I get stuck on how to tell this weird part of the story, worried that I'm going to come off sounding like a total loon.
Well, since it's apropos, I'll steal a bit from the 072501 upload here:
Been resisting this entry for the usual silly reason:
What will people say?
I love what Berthold Auerbach has to say about that foolish fear:
In these words lies the tyranny of the world,
the whole destruction of our natural disposition,
the oblique vision of our minds.
These four words hold sway everywhere.
He's right, don'tcha think?
Yeah, he's right. Let's get on with it.
Visions