all ought to love one another.
I added a personal note at the end of the condensed version of the Bible’s story saying, “If there is only one thing to be learned from this history, it is that faith cannot be destroyed. It can only be redirected to another cause or church. Faith is another form of energy that cannot be killed. It can only change in shape, size or scope. Faith cannot be abandoned anymore so than our astral awareness. It can only be forgotten until another force brings it back into focus. It is our job to find that focus.”
NEW MESSAGE
As the Old and New Testaments charted the future fate of its followers, the new message of our time would tell not what life is, but what it isn’t.
Our lunch meeting was much more alive than our first morning meeting which was only intended to help form our team and solidify our spirit. Several of the team of twelve had complained of feeling slightly seasick and nauseous, which after a quick trip by the ship’s doctor they were reassured that a little Dramamine, or for the naturalists in our group some ginger-root would settle their stomachs. Some of the others expressed how great they felt, which was ruled caused by the fresh sea air and the emotional relief of being on a great cruise instead of battling the traffic and masses of the great unwashed back home. No one thought they were brainwashed or drugged. All or almost all of the authors did believe that this was the most enjoyable and highly profitable piece of work they had ever been associated with.
This meeting was held by the pool with a long table to the side filled with food and drink and thirteen overstuffed deck chairs placed about in a circle with clipboards and pens next to each on a small cedar side table.
Everyone was on time, because each had been escorted by their own personal assistant who also functioned as a handler. When all were comfortably settled in their surroundings, with drinks by their sides, I started off this meeting with the same silent prayer I would say for the next thirty days.
“Please, God, guide our hearts, heads and hands in the righteous path to create a paradise.” Although I am sure that some of the writers closest to me might have seen my lips moving to my words of worship, no one questioned me as to the what or why fores.
“Gentlemen, we are gathered here to start the creation of a new book.” I looked each man in the eye as I spoke and saw none of the drugged delirium that accompanied my earlier delivery, but everyone did wonder what the orange nerf ball in my hands was about. As I squeezed the ball’s soft surface I explained, “You twelve are without a doubt the highest selling and now the highest paid authors of the world and as such deserve the service and surroundings you are now ensconced within. But to maintain some sense of decorum, direction and discipline at these meetings, only the person holding the ball is allowed to speak. I know that to some of you this might seem silly, but each and every one of you has valuable contributions to make in the direction and style of our endeavor, and I want all of us to be able to fully appreciate what each other has to say. So please don’t think of me as a lecture hall disciplinarian, but more of a coach who wants to hand off this ball.
And as I saw in their eyes the sense of the game, I first threw the soft ball to Philip the Evangelist who was sitting to the right of me. His leg was still in a cast from the car accident that broke it while he was walking by the side of the road and had been struck by an automobile. He had sold more books than anyone else in the world, and we really didn’t know how he would take to playing second fiddle to a story line that had already been set to musical movement. His voice was well trained from his earlier years of teaching high school English as he said, “First of all, I want to thank our benefactors for me being here with my wife, family and amongst friends. This is a long way from Maine or our home in Florida and we all are very happy and for a change feel absolutely safe.
His sense of graciousness sort of surprised me because I always imagined he would be a bit stuck up due to his success. But then he smiled at me as if he could read my thoughts as he continued on.
“I’ve worked on joint projects before with a co-writer, but this is the first time I have ever heard of a project this size and scope and employing the amount of talent I find myself surrounded by.” He took a breath while squeezing the ball and said, “I do hope this is going to be as much fun and far fetching for all of you as it will be for me.”
With that said he passed the ball to his right and having set the tone each and every writer joined their mutual appreciation society and declared their respect and admiration for each other’s work. These words of praise had been heard before at the earlier dinner party, so next I reassured them about our direction as the ball was passed back to me after all twelve had their public say.
I took a deep breath and started my speech. “As the coach of your team I have studied all of your skills, and the assignments and direction I set are based upon what will make this team succeed. But first we each must understand what game it is we need to win.”
As I looked about the team of twelve I began to realize that this sales job might not be as difficult as what I first thought. After all, these authors are participating in a project that echoes what they really like to do. They are highly paid professionals with all the assistance they wish. There is no great pressure upon them to individually produce, because this is a joint project. They all had survived or enjoyed the dramas or delights that first encouraged them to join in this journey. And why not do a great job? They are being paid $100,000 a day to escape the evils that invaded their hometowns and do what they enjoy best … write without worries.
I returned to my original premise and continued on. “The game we play is to transcend the truth and end the terrors that threaten to kill off civilization as we know it.”
I knew I was getting wound up for the delivery I was about to pitch at my players, but I couldn’t help myself. “Every day wars are being fought over power, land, energy, gold or to obtain the riches of others without the work or worship they paid to originally gain it. Sometimes it is just one thief stealing from another and other times it is a bully stealing from the weak. But even if you add all of these causes of chaos together, they do not equal the dead of the wars fought in God’s name.”
I could see I struck a note of harmony with this gang of twelve as I looked about at each face. “In God’s name we pray to perish our foes and reward our friends. We pray to Him to protect our way of life and bless our country’s currency. To me, it is obvious that only His words will bring about a new way of life and liberty.”
I pushed my point onward. “Others use their interpretations of God’s words to further their causes and terrorists misconstrue His message to commit murders. The churches have commercialized or incorporated the Messiah’s plan for mankind by talking you into trading your smarts or silver for a false sense of salvation.” As eyebrows started to rise, I raised my voice. “The Lord’s lessons have been legislated into outright lies or lush liberties with our lucre or love. Look at the state of the world’s peoples. I am not saying that the entire population of our planet is born dumb on purpose, but the vast majority of mankind still misspells the three R’s as reading, riting and rythmatic and furthermore rhyming means more than reason. Smart people are ridiculed and labeled as rebels or racists and are being smothered in a sea of stupidity.”
Some of the twelve now had their jaws hung open in abated amazement, while in others’ eyes I saw the look of agreement. “Now is the time for us to move forward in our focus from entertaining into enlightenment.” As I saw a smirk, I closed my eyes and said, “And if any doubting Thomases are among you that think this is a joke, need I remind any of you that Scientology, one of the the fastest growing religions, got its start from a science fiction writer.”
I saw several heads nod in agreement or disgustingly shake side to side as if trying to still figure out how a sci-fi writer
