This is from a
friend who ordered my book when it first came out. I told her a few days
ago in an email that I hadn’t sold a million copies yet and she replied:
“It is a rather large book Dave.
What is your main objective in writing it? For you own benefit,
as a road map for others, as a teaching tool on spiritual ways and means??”
My answer (what
I actually wrote to my friend is different) might have been:
I don’t think I’ll prune any
more branches from my epitaph. I haven't found many people to relate to
in this life, but I have found them. This book is for them. My mind is an
unusual tree, but it’s me.
Portrait’s title is as close a
description of what this book is about as I can make it: a portrayal of a
person who was born to seek life’s meaning.
A portrait is not any
single blob of paint. So my book is all of the things you mentioned; it
is for my own benefit, of course, as well as a roadmap for others and a
“teaching tool” on spiritual ways and means.
I don't think people need
others like they think they do. Many people seem to need an
example. Monkey see, monkey do. When we finally see something that
matches us...
I wanted to show how I
was inspired to follow the beat of my own drum and to offer encouragement
to others who are seeking their own ultimate answer.
Portrait is absolutely imperfect
because it reflects something eternally susceptible to improvement—me.
Yet I think these prints of mine in the snow are at the same time perfect,
because they're mine and they tell my story.
If I ever find I want to write
something blatantly instructive, I'll put together one or two pages and post
it. I’ll invite anyone to email me and
this is what I would invariably say:
This is your life. None of us matter in the end to you, and none
of us are right about your life, but you. I know
an answer exists for me; and because this is true for me, I suspect it is
possible for you. I hope that you will try to find out.
I wanted to make Portrait a reality while I could;
too many years had gone by with just the idea of this book bobbing around in
the back of my head. I know that most
books, like the proverbial captain, go down with their ship. Steer your
own boat.
I think certain people will
read Portrait.
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