What's Your Story : Transformation and Re-Creation

One summer's eve when I was in my late thirties, I was lounging in my home in Phoenix Arizona, watching a movie, when I had an epiphany. I wasn't looking for an epiphany, and I certainly wasn't expecting a life-changing experience as enjoyed the movie. I was more focused on my still-healing broken foot and bandaged right wrist than any thoughts of discovering my life's-calling.. The epiphany came as a single, bright flash of inspiration.. The epiphany was a single, crisp thought. It was both a realization and pure knowledge. It was certainty. Through the epiphany I'd seen something in my mind's eye. I'd seen a story.. I shut off the TV and turned on the overhead light, grappling with the new thoughts and images spinning in my head, even as the afterimages of two characters from the movie slowly dissipated from the screen. The words from their last dialogue were still ringing in my ears.. "Their story will set them free...". The interlocutor had been haranguing the other character. Pressing his point, he challenged his underling to rise to the occasion, to the plight of the suffering people he was championing.. "What's your story, Mr. Baldwin?" he asked, "What's Your Story...?". *****I'd been watching "Amistad", another Stephen Spielberg masterpiece. The inquisitor was Anthony Hopkins. The subject of his ire, Matthew McConaughey. These were the characters of John Quincy Adams and Roger Sherman Baldwin, and they were arguing over the welfare of a group of slaves who'd been illegally incarcerated (as much as there is any sense of "legality" in the world of slavery) .. Their story will set them free.... *****The very next day I began the journey of transforming the gift I'd received - the epiphany - into reality. To begin the process of writing it down. I went to my local coffee shop - laptop in tow - grabbed a latte and sat at a corner table. I'd once been told that if you want to write, the best place to begin is to write about that which you know. Sitting in the coffee shop that morning I knew one thing with absolute certainty, and it was simply this - I knew My Story.With President Adams' fiery exhortation still ringing in my ears (and the fate of the suffering people he'd sought to protect still unknown to me - I hadn't finished the movie) , I bent to my task. Somehow, I knew - through the epiphany - that my own stories would set me free. Perhaps they might help set others free too.... On the most fundamental level, this book is the wheel recreated and true north rediscovered. This is stumbling upon (and tripping over) life, learning what's already been learned millions of times over - only this time by me, first hand, up-close and personal. This is the School of Hard Knocks. This is wandering in the desert. This is blood and tears. This is love and laughter, adventure and wonder. This is sex and drugs. This is good - and sometimes not so great.. This is my story...