Whew – now that’s some kind of title, huh?

It all started with Philip K. Dick, sci-fi writer extraordinaire. He was a scribbler who happened to get published, back in the day when it wasn’t that hard to get your crummy stories into print via pulp fiction magazines. But that makes sense … I’ll get to that.

Start at the beginning: exegesis. Definition: critical explanation or interpretation of a text, especially of scripture. The Bible. That poor book that is at the heart of most of the world’s troubles these days. But it isn’t the book – that’s just the excuse. It’s mostly men straining to become powerful by acting in ways that ultimately will destroy their own and everybody else’s world. Whoa – another big one. But that isn’t my point.

So what about Philip K. Dick, sci-fi writer ex..you know. As I said, he was pretty much a full time scribbler. He got his stories published in those pulp magazines. Some weren’t very good, but eventually they got better and then they were quite good. However, later on he wrote letters and other forms of thought documentation. Why? It would appear he put it all down to keep away the hounds of madness. And what was the result? He thought it was the path to knowledge, both about himself and the world around him. Others attributed it to him having high blood pressure, a stroke and then the aftermath. Everything has to be broken down to a simple explanation, right?

Simple explanations help us sleep at night. Lee Harvey Oswald killed Kennedy. The UFOs are just weather balloons. Mass shootings are all done by crazy people. Nothing to see here. Nothing to worry about.

So a couple of folks got together, collecting a bunch of PK’s scribblings and published it as the book known as “The Exegesis of Philip K. Dick.” So that makes PK downright Biblical? No, not really. A lot of it does sound crazy. But throughout, there’s an element of rationality and logic that can’t be avoided. Why? Because ultimately, we’re either on that path to enlightenment, or we’re a “Happy Carrot”. Huh?

My therapist Elaine studied with Marion Woodman, who coined the phrase, “Happy Carrot” for those people who are perfectly content to go through life without thinking the really hard thoughts – and doing the hard work associated with psychotherapy. My beloved Erik is a Happy Carrot, God bless him. I am not. Ergo, I try to do the same type of work PK did, without the whiff of madness … at least most days. Sometimes it overcomes me, but less and less. Does that mean I’m making progress? I’d like to think so.

What has all this to do with anything? Right now we’re on the cusp of changes. Everyone is. I talked about that in the last post. Some will be minor – refinancing our mortgage, Kirsten moving back to Tallahassee and living in a nice condo, maybe us selling the island to help everyone with their financial houses. But the larger world is also on the cusp of changes. Which brings me to the point. Oh, hooray! At last.

Back in March of this year, I promised to talk about the potential for a rapproachement between Iran and Saudi Arabia. It had been discussed, and even envoys had met with tentative steps taken toward putting differences aside. That was March…

Eight months later, the Middle East has blown up. You know all about that, having carefully read all my prior posts, right? So what happened? Superficially, it was Hamas’ fear of that thawing of tensions and the impact on them that caused them to horrifically attack Israelies. But take a step back. Put all these posts together. Recognize that everything is symptomatic of a much larger change. What will it look like, in the short and longer term?

That’s the point of this work – trying to do what PK did to understand and therefore prepare for the coming changes. I’ve been feeling it for quite some time, but avoiding the work of doing what is needed to say the outrageous. So the book – I’ll call it TEO PK has been purchased and minimally scanned. Can I do the work and work (at HD)? Probably not. Do I need to work at HD anymore? Beginning to think not. Target date for notice to them: 12/1.

But something has to take its place in order to continue with physical fitness, balance and weight management. What will that be? Walking on a treadmill, listening to music or reading, maybe? Worth a try. Returning to the gym, this time Planet Fitness for a mere 10 bucks a month? Good idea for upper body strength. Maybe both. Dance class? Silver Sneakers? Something …ideas would be welcomed.

OK, so I didn’t talk much about the Middle East changes from March to November. But I will…after I learn more. Enlightenment has not yet sufficiently arrived to do it justice. Patience, grasshopper.