Forumites,
I've recently self published my first project "I Febrezed My Dog".
It's a collection of short stories about love, trust, religion, relationship and other general topics.
I talk about things such as:
white people's ability to like to songs that are clearly directed at black people,
why someone who loves you might still cheat on you,
the reason suicide isn't all that selfish,
what people "really" mean when they say they trust someone etc.
The stories are short and I try to keep them light hearted, but also thought provoking.
Both print:
http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/i-febrezed-my-dog/6234756>and downloadable
http://www.lulu.com/product/download/i-febrezed-my-dog/6234757versions are available.
So feel free to check it out and support my project if it sounds interesting to you.
Any feedback would be especially appreciated as well.
Below is an excerpt called "A Conversation with God"
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And that was when God said to me, "you don’t want to know". Clearly I did. In fact, I would not allow the conversation to continue until he revealed the thought he was withholding.
He had not used the expression 'you don’t know want to know' in a literal sense. It was just that he believed that he was withholding something that would upset me.
And so I said to God, "you know what, this is not fair. I do want to know! And you know it! 'You don’t want to know' is not a valid response under these circumstances.
The kid who doesn’t want to die yet wants to go flying like superman out of the tenth story window, still in fact wants to go flying like superman. He is either just stupid or, in the case of a more realistic example, has not yet resolved that conflict of interest." He smiled and nodded. I continued.
"In life, we tend to draw parallels between what we want and what is going to make us happy when wanting, by definition, has nothing to do with how we feel after getting what we desire. And so, wanting to know, by definition, shouldn't have anything to do with how I will feel after the fact. 'You don’t want to know' is usually just the projection of 'I don’t want to tell you' onto someone else."
What followed was an awkward silence.
***
It pretty much started off as a one sided affair, and what struck me as odd was that God was asking all the questions. Typical stuff mainly. Where are you from? What do you do? Stuff that you would figure he already knew. I concluded that he was just trying to be polite. Do onto others, you know?
I had enough with the pleasantries though. And so I politely interrupted, "Enough about me". And that's when we got down to the real issue.
***
There are many non-believers who were born into religion. When they were babies, their God fearing parents had them baptized by their respective churches, and consequently they are now (insert name of religion here).
However, for personal reasons, these individuals grow into adults that go on to refer to themselves as agnostic, atheist, deist, individualist etc. – rejecting the religious beliefs that were bestowed onto them when they were too young to control their bowel movements. These individuals go on to define themselves by their lifestyle – adopting a label they deem to be suited to their personal life philosophy. What does this make them?
Who is more of a student: The child who is enrolled in school, attends class, but fails to apply anything he is taught, hiding behind self proclaimed limitations and a barrage of excuses; or the child who isn’t enrolled in school but is a diligent and enthusiastic learner, eager to put to practice anything that he or she can get their hands on?
That is to say, if you were born into religion, are you really any more Godly than an atheist, if the way you live your life bears little or, ironically, less resemblance to the doctrine of your Church? Or are you merely ‘enrolled’ in religion?
And that's when God said to me, "you don’t want to know."
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http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/pages/I-Febrezed-My-Dog/268119370311?ref=ts