Beyond Time Book

For those who love the writing and books of Pat Conroy (Prince of Tides, Beach Music, The Great Santini, Lords of Discipline etc) rejoice!  On August 11th, his greatly awaited book titled ”South of Broad”  will hit the bookshelves.

For those who love character development and believable characters drawn from life (author’s own dysfunctional family) with whom one can relate, Conroy’s the master.  Such characters are believable because we not only know them in our own lives but disdain or walk away from them.  Not Conroy. For him they are grist for his fabulous literary mill as he celebrates their dysfunction in broad, dramatic, juicy strokes. 

The language and metaphors used take one’s breath away; Conroy’s a master of stating undeniable psychological truths and presenting characters that demonstrate that particular dysfunction. Likewise he’s not afraid to reveal through them the melancholia of his own psyche - nor ashamed of crying, bleeding or whining for all the world to witness, thus affording the rest of us the opportunity of arrogance to deem our psychological health much more superior. 

A few examples of Pat Conroy’s language and metaphors:

“I could bear the memory but could not bear the music that made the memory such a killing thing.”  Beach Music

“She was one of those Southerners who knew from an early age that the South could never be more for them than a fragrant prison, administered by a collective of loving but treacherous relatives.”  Prince of Tides

“She understood the nature of sin and knew that its’ most volatile form was the kind that did not recognize itself.” (said of Tolitha, the grandmother in Prince of Tides)

A reader asked if I was going to comment on Michael Jackson’s passing.  It puzzled me as to why I would given the outpouring of comments,  testimonies and opinions already out there. 

Trying to mindread why this blog should address his death I came to the conclusion if I needed a reason it was because Beyond Time is about the question whether we really do die. 

Given the media’s propensity for dramatic headlines, one opined about the King of Pop that “it was a life cut short.”  

Is that true?  Whose to say his life, an incredible journey of entertaining multi-millions all over the globe since the age of five that there was anything of note left to do.  How many of us have accomplished as much as he did in grabbing hold of the public’s fervor with his awesome talent whose music made us feel better. Maybe as close as we come in feeling joy.

In preparing for his London series he told his handlers he wanted a personal physician 24/7, giving the reasoning, “I am the machine that makes this whole thing work.  You have to keep the machine fit.”   

Did he really consider himself a machine, did he really reduce himself to a series of working parts.

Maybe he did feel like a machine, lost his heart.  Heart disease does result often for that very reason.

“The Heart Goes On” sang Celine Dion, another incredible talent.  Michael’s heart which he poured into his music with no doubt, heart and soul,  will go on through his vast inventory of albums and videos.

Now he is at peace and we can still feel amped listening to his music without the media casting aspersions.  Media collectively reminds me of cackling hens, some more vicious and judgmental than others. 

What about the rest of us?  Will our hearts go on when its our time?  Asking ourselves the question of what will our legacy be is all we need to be concerned about.    Grieving can be shortened for Michael Jackson and others who die young when they leave the legacy he left.  You can’t listen to his music without feeling more alive.   So let’s just say “thank you” as he passes onto the next juncture of his journey.

And watch for cloud formations; you just might see one in the shape of a shiny glove. 

I love the wisdom of Marcus Aurelius even though, like the rest of us, he didn’t always live by his inspirational words.  However, since Beyond Time is about a woman who after suffering amnesia only recalls past lives which bridges centuries, I thought the following quote by the Roman Emperor apt.

 ”Live not one’s life as though one had a thousand years, but live each day as the last.”

I love to go back to what seemed so much wiser times than we are currently experiencing - to more wise and learned philosophers, poets, and dramatists who didn’t preach as much as observe.  That’s why I found the simple observation by Voltaire that “it is no more surprising to be born twice than once; that everything in nature is resurrection” made sense.  We see this so clearly after a winter’s sleep and the arrival of spring. 

….second time and as though you had acted wrongly the first time.” 

Viktor Frankl, death camp survivor of both Auschwitz and Dachau, created a school of psychiatry called logotherapy based on these words.

Existentially drawn, Frankl found meaning, love, hope for mankind and the raw material for his incredible and mystical bestseller, “Man’s Search for Meaning,” while bearing witness to this century’s worst example of “man’s inhumanity to man.” In his search for meaning, amidst bestial conditions and sadism, he concluded that our life contains an inevitable triad, namely, pain, suffering and death.  The only escape route - used by  Frankl and fellow survivors - was to transcend this material world and discover the inner world.  Here the choice is made whether to be a victim or a survivor. The point of the psychotherapist’s work and its’ structure with patients after liberation, was to guide them to choose, as the post title articulates, “to act as though you are living a second time and as though you had acted wrongly the first time.” 

In later posts I will share bits and pieces of Frankl’s work that I have found to be reflected in my work as a hypnotherapist facilitating client regressions, whether current life or past.  One of my most favorite quotations that I’ve used ad nauseum with friends and three sons is also used by Frankl when he discusses the benefits that suffering and death may offer.  It’s Friedrich Neitzsche’s, “whatever doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger.

“You can take that one to the bank. (Well at least you could before last week).  

The stripping away of everything a person considers their “I” or ego, which is what happened in the Holocaust, led Frankl to surmise the whole point of living which was “only love is true, only love is eternal.”  

I think the point non-debatable and hopefully future readers of Beyond Time will draw that very same conclusion.