Random Thoughts from a Nonlinear Mind, Volume 2: The Athena Chapters Preface
Do you have any idea what a Preface is as opposed to an Introduction? I have read thousands of books, and I must admit that I was not clear on the distinction, so I hit my favorite search engine (Google) and got to work. For the last few hours, I have been doing some research, and I have learned a few interesting things about the difference between a Preface and an Introduction. Apparently, in the Preface, I am supposed to tell you how the book came about and why you should read it. At least, that is what most everyone knowledgeable about these types of things seems to agree on. I am going to start there.
It is really very simple, I wrote this book because I was compelled to. Over five years ago, I went to a punk rock concert that changed my life. There I met a woman I am calling Athena. I still shake my head whenever I think of her. Every night (and I mean every single night) I wake up at 3 or 4 in the morning and stare at the ceiling. I keep asking myself the same question over and over: “OK genius, what was that all about?” My answer varies depending on my mood that day.
As it turns out, the day after I met her, I decided to make it my mission to see if I could get this incredible lady to go to lunch with me. That is pretty much it. Deep down, I wanted to see if my head would pop off the next time I saw her. Of course, there is much more to the story than that, the chapters in this volume give the details.
I started writing these essays because a singer in a punk band changed my life with one evening of conversation. The transformation was instantaneous, it took me no time to realize that something highly unusual was happening to me. As it turned out, meeting her was the most fascinating, life-altering experience I have ever had. That, briefly, is how this book came about. She said, “I’m Athena,” and I went home and gazed at my blinking computer screen for years. Nothing unusual about that, is there?
The next thing a Preface is supposed to do is give the potential reader a reason to keep turning the pages. So, why should you read this book? I do have a couple reasons.
I have gotten in the habit of asking people to go home and write about their significant others. I tell them I will patiently sit while I wait for them to give me a rough draft. Of course, being the nice guy that I am, I let them know I would be more than happy to edit anything they come up with. I usually ask them to do this after they launch into intense criticism of me for wasting my valuable time by writing this book. By asking them to write, I am trying to get them to understand how difficult a thing it is to do. Go ahead, give it a try. Start typing and try to come up with something interesting to say about your husband, wife, or partner. Make it something intriguing enough that you would be willing to share it with the world. While you are at it, make it unique. Try your best to come up with something exciting and unexpected; tell us all something we do not know.
If you give that last paragraph a little thought, you will see that it is nearly impossible to do something like that. At least no one has taken me up on my challenge. Not a single person has come up with anything at all to say. Not a single one.
So, why should you read this book? For starters, this collection of essays is not about my wife or the mother of my children. I have never been married, and I have no kids. This collection of essays is simply about what happened to me when I met a chick with a guitar.
How many women have ever inspired a book to be written after a single meeting with them? We all know the answer, right? Not many. How about people in general? How many people in the history of the written word have ever inspired a person who met them one time to sit down and spend years in front of a keyboard? My guess is that number is not very large either.
The fact that someone, especially me, wrote a book about their experience of meeting a person once is reason enough to give the first couple chapters a read. If you find them interesting, and I hope you will, then the rest of the book should go down smoothly.
Random Thoughts from a Nonlinear Mind, Volume 2: The Athena Chapters Introduction
This collection of essays is about a dude that went to a rock show and met a chick. I have done quite a bit of research on the topic of people meeting each other at concerts, and it appears I am obligated to refer to all such individuals as dudes and chicks. I can’t just say that a man met a woman at a show and go from there. Apparently, I am obligated to adjust my seat, kick off my vans, and pull my pork pie hat down real low before I can tell the story of what happened when a dude met a chick unlike anyone he has ever known.
The only other thing you need to know before you tackle the next three chapters (huh, three?) is that in the spring of 2011, a rip in the space-time fabric of the universe was detected in a dive bar located somewhere in the Midwest. At that moment, the dude, ever so sensitive to the quantum structure of reality, became unstuck in time. The chick, ever so cool, bounced. What follows is simply an elaborate attempt by the dude to get the chick to meet him for lunch. No kidding.
That is the original introduction that I wrote over two years ago. Initially, I wrote three essays about the woman I am calling Athena (not her real name). Things quickly got out of hand as the ideas for new chapters just kept coming and coming. In about two years, I wrote all the following essays about meeting Athena. Well, to be honest, this volume is not really about her; each essay is about what happened to me after she introduced herself.
Clearly, this situation is the most remarkable and extraordinary thing that has ever happened to me. I really hope that remains true, I don’t know if I could stand anything more unusual than the stories you are about to read.
I hope you experience a sense of kinship while seeing me vacillate between patience and frustration; I hope you are compelled as I write of my battle between hope and hopelessness; I hope you can feel at least a little sympathy as I struggle within myself between “give her some more time” and “I don’t have time for this.” I hope you find yourself rooting for me to get my elusive lunch date with a woman who totally stunned me with two little words. As you are about to find out, she said, “I’m Athena,” and I was forever changed.
