Illusions

Okay, I know it's technically cheating, but I don't care. I started a draft of this post the middle of last week, along with several other posts, and I'm going to post them with their original dates. I've been lazy with my writing this past week, but I'm going to attempt to catch up in one evening. Let's see how I do...

For the past week or so I've been reading a book by Richard Bach called Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah. Judging from the copy I checked out from the library, it's passed through many hands in the years since it was published in the mid-70's. It's a short and easy read; I actually paced myself and just read it while I sat at my table eating. I'd heard people say this book changed their lives or their thinking in some profound way. Maybe I'm too cynical or maybe the message is getting to me thirty years late, but I have to admit this didn't happen to me. I did enjoy the book though.

A brief synopsis: Richard is a barnstormer, a man with a small private plane who flies from town to town in the Midwest landing in fields and giving rides in his plane to locals for $3 a pop. He happens across another barnstormer, Donald Shimoda, who also happens to be a retired Messiah. The two spend enough time together for Richard to learn the tricks of Messiah-hood from Donald and from his 'Messiah's Handbook'. The book is peppered with quotes from the Handbook which can be thought-provoking, my favorite being 'Your friends will know you better in the first minute you meet than your acquaintances will know you in a thousand years'.

Overall, this is an enjoyable and easy read dealing with questions and possible explanations of spirituality. It offers you some opportunities to think, or you can skip the thinking and enjoy the story, as you wish. And so with life and mind unchanged, I cross of #319: read Illusions.