Summer 2004
One year ago, life was good. Very good. Or so I thought.
An award-winning Creative Director for a renowned global entertainment company, I was esteemed by my peers in the film and television industry. My job paid handsomely. I drove nice cars, lived in a beautiful house in the Connecticut countryside and dined wherever I wished. And I was fortunate to be blessed with a small circle of true friends.
Then I quit my job and walked away from it all. Just like that. Without warning, and with very serious doubts, I turned my back on the world I had created and knew so well. Was I scared? Absolutely. Did I have a clue as to what I wanted to do? Absolutely not! What I knew for certain was that, like many of you, I was suffering from the soul sickness of modern society.
We live in an age where there is premium placed on the material. Our culture emphasizes youth, appearances and possessions. Our house is never big enough; we can always use more money and a new car. Each morning we awake, leap out of bed, and frantically jump right back into the never-ending rat race. Our minds still spin like mice in a wheel when we sleep. If, that is, we can truly sleep. What we lack today is a profound belief system of enduring value like generations past.
I had reached a point in my life where this world of pretense and superficiality lost its appeal. I felt empty. My life was lacking purpose. I no longer saw the world through the eyes of a child, awed and inspired by the simple wonders of life itself. My soul needed to embark on a journey of discovery. My spirit longed for adventure. I was determined to find the true joy of life.
When I walked out of my office for the last time, it seemed the weight of the world lifted from my shoulders. Immediately I felt lighter, energized, liberated. I sold my house and most of my belongings, packed what few mementoes I decided to keep in my Jeep, and headed west. I didn’t have an agenda. There were no grand plans or roadmaps for this next phase of my life. Eschewing logic and reason, ignoring the advice of friends and the compassion of family who thought I was merely “burnt out”, I began a spiritual journey using trust as my guide and intuition my navigational system.
Journeying through old western towns and exploring the majestic wilderness of this great country, I was in search of depth and meaning. I knew there was more to life, some profound purpose as to our existence. I spent a week in solitude in The Badlands of South Dakota, hiking by day, sleeping out under a canopy of brilliant white stars by night, completely removed from the world of cars, cell phones and satellite TV. Alone with earth, sleeping amidst the coyotes and the bison and the prairie dogs, I sought to come to grips with my fears of imaginary demons lurking in the bushes and the shadows of the night. Far removed from the cacophony of modern technology, I hoped to experience an epiphany, or at least make a deep spiritual connection with all that is real.
With a mind still calcified from years of societal conditioning, deep insight at first eluded me. It wasn’t until I stopped searching, stopped trying so hard to find, that the divine force of Life, the Universal Source itself, found me.
The eternal wisdom I discovered - or perhaps more appropriately “rediscovered” - from a timeless place long ago, but not so far away, is set forth in this fictional tale. It all unfolds one magical night in a small-town bar in the middle of nowhere. It’s a rather modest place. Or so it seems...
Until the gods show up.
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