Peter and Paul: The GATE

Sometime ago I questioned whether a long life is a blessing, or a karmic punishment for deeds or thoughts committed in present or past incarnations. The jury is still out. For some reason, people who no longer contribute to the creative benevolence of the Universe, seem to hung on to dear life. Only, the life is no longer dear. Often they are sick, live on analgesics, hover on the edge of dementia if not Alzheimer’s.

They are the same people who fall asleep every day, never knowing if they are going to wake up. On waking they often enjoy at least vague recollection of their dreams, yet seldom if ever do they realize that the Subconscious, which seeds their dreams with wondrous experiences, is hardly more nor less then the heaven they are so determined to avoid. Admittedly, not the highest heaven, not even a high one, but heaven nevertheless where we are free to enjoy the seemingly impossible with impunity. In our dreams we are immortal, blessed with near infinite power, capable of travelling well beyond the velocity of light. We can change realities with a wink of our chimerical eye; chimerical, yet in our dreams, as real as the soil beneath our feet.

In our dreams, we are gods.

And this brings be to “Things my Mother told me”. We visited my mother frequently, first taking her for a walk, towards the end pushing her in a wheelchair often, at her request, to the chapel. And there she gave indisputable evidence that the instinct of self-preservation is not always a blessing. She was a practicing Catholic, blessed with powerful faith. Hence it came as a surprise when we overheard her pleas uttered before the cross at the altar.

“Take me,” she pleaded. “Please, please, take me…”

Her religious conditioning did not allow her to accelerate her translation from the phenomenal reality to a higher realm, even that of first heaven.

Someone wrote: The Gate—Things my Mother told me draws you in with subtlety, wit, compassion and faith. An intriguing and captivating look at the last sixty years of western culture that holds you even though we all know how her story is going to end. It will be of particular interest to people who experienced Alzheimer's or Dementia in their immediate family.”

And others added…

“This is a jewel of a piece of writing…” noted Kate Jones.

“A novel that deserves to be read by millions of people” commented Johann David Renner.

“What brilliance this is. …it’s nearly impossible to find comparable smart, curious, insightful and imaginative writing on his level… How do we construct a life with love? How do we teach ourselves how to die?

…the book does something I've never experienced before in moving from very self aware memoir towards an awareness of the dementia/dying processes, and then to a lack of awareness of them.

Achingly beautiful…”

Let me know what you think. You can have a free copy, if you do. Please?