Daily Excerpt: An Afternoon's Dictation (Greenebaum) - Introduction

 

Today's book excerpt comes from An Afternoon's Dictation by Steven Greenebaum.


                                                             Introduction

These are hugely difficult times. When I began this book, COVID was loose and taking lives across the country and around the world as wars were raging and murdering so many innocents. Now, as wars continue, there are new diseases raging while many struggle to learn to live with “long COVID.” All this as people are at long last recognizing that the environment is in crisis yet continue to argue vehemently over what if anything to do about it. In the United States and much of what has been called the “free world,” the very nature of freedom itself is the topic of vehement and often virulent argument. The future of the Earth is in question. More personally, and for me of equal importance, the quality of life we are leaving for posterity is also in question. Even if, as I fervently hope, humanity at last rises to the occasion and begins to work in earnest to save itself and the planet, there are some dark times ahead—very dark times.

In the face of this darkness, why write a book? Particularly with my health so “iffy,” why spend what energy remains to me writing? For me, the answer is hope. Yet, hope without action becomes merely a dream that disappears with the morning. So, I write.

I deeply believe that if we are to find our way out of the darkness we will need to come together. We will need to find and cleave to what can unite us. We will need, if you will, a positive, hopeful, action-based spiritual renewal.

To be clear, this book cannot be and is in no way intended to provide “the answer.” My hope is that it may help us to navigate our journey through the darkness to find and renew our spiritual selves. How? Reasonable question! In this book, I want to share fully what was shared with me some twenty years ago at a time when I had lost all sense of optimism and was sinking into a personal abyss of darkness. The why of the abyss may be found in my spiritual memoir, “One Family: Indivisible.” In brief, for several months in 1999, in the privacy of my home, I angrily demanded, several times every day, frequently out loud and sometimes in my mind, “God, you’re there? I want five minutes, and I want answers!”

Of course, it is one thing to demand answers but quite another to actually get them! After months of pleading for answers to the great questions of my life, an inner voice that I knew wasn’t mine told me to get some paper and a pen and write. Ok, then! I got paper and, well, took dictation. Three pages of it.

The honest truth of it is that having received the revelations I’d so angrily demanded, I had no idea what to do with them. I then pondered, indeed studied and lived with these revelations, for roughly ten years before things at last gelled. Parts of the dictation made immediate sense. Yet other parts became clear only after a lot of study.

These revelations changed my life. In the end, not only did I feel I understood what had been revealed to me, but I was also launched upon the path of Interfaith that I have walked ever since. What was revealed to me that day has not only given me purpose and direction but also hope—hope for myself, and for humanity.

Out of those years of studying the revelations I’d been gifted, three books slowly emerged. My first book, The Interfaith Alternative, was derived directly from my study of the revelations, which had not only set me on the path of respecting the diversity of our spiritual traditions but also caused me to found the Living Interfaith church. The second book, Practical Interfaith, came two years later and in answer to those who had said, “Interfaith sounds beautiful, but is it practical?” It was based on what I had learned in the day-to-day world about actually starting an Interfaith congregation. Five years later came my third book, One Family: Indivisible. It was a personal sharing, warts and all, of my spiritual life from childhood to the present, including the receipt of the revelations and how I came to embrace the whole of the human family as my own.

One might reasonably ask, “Why wait to share the revelations until the third book?” This decision was based on life experience. Rightly or wrongly, I felt that there was so much controversy over the question of God (Is there a God or isn’t there; and if there is, what is the nature of God?) that I believed if I started with the revelations, too many people would be distracted by asking, was it from God or not? I believed then, as I believe now, that the call of Interfaith is a call to all of us—ALL of us. It calls to us whether we embrace God or not and regardless of how we relate to God, if indeed we believe.

So, I included the revelations in One Family: Indivisible and did so pretty much without comment. At the time, it felt wrong to be adding any interpretations. This feeling was based on a private fear. I feared being seen as some kind of prophet. Good flaming grief, all I am and ever will be is the very human and imperfect me. The last thing I wanted was a discussion about me to get in the way of the call to Interfaith even as I felt obligated to share the dictation. Happily, I am now thoroughly convinced that no one is ever going to confuse me with a prophet, nor should they. Ever! But as I talked to and heard from people who’d read the book, I came to realize that sharing the revelations without comment had left the work unfinished. So here, in what will be my final book, I want not only to share the dictation again but also what I made of it. After twenty years of pondering and working with it, what has been revealed?

As I hope will be clear, I am in no way attempting to provide the last word on the revelations. My thoughts are not intended to end discussion. What I hope is that they can be a beginning. I will share what was dictated to me and what, after long hours and years of living with it, I believe it communicates: a message of hope, and a guide for those of us who want to live meaningful lives. I also want to share what I made of that message and why.

Still, that sharing is only my take. I can only write about what I know. So, among other things, it’s important to acknowledge that I write from a Western perspective. I am also aware that I write from a Jewish perspective, albeit as part of the Reform movement. Orthodox Jews, not to mention folks from spiritual traditions other than Judaism, will, I feel sure, read and adapt what’s here to their own experiences and needs. Yes, I believe we are all one family. Blet’s be honest, our family has been separated a very long time.

In addition, as I delved further and further into our diverse spiritual traditions and their histories, it became ever clearer that the enlightenment I’d received had been received by so very many before me. Yes, the wording may be different. I’m a Western English speaker, living at that moment at the cusp of the 21st century, but the essence was the same. So, please do expect some déjà vu as you read. The message isn’t new. We’ve heard it again and again across the centuries. My guess is that we will keep hearing it over and over until we stop preaching about it and actually act—integrating it into our lives as a family.

In the appendices, I share two gently different versions of the dictation I received. The first is a recounting of the revelations as I wrote them down. The second is a reorganization, and only that, of the order of the revelations into the groupings that occurred to me after I’d lived with them for well over ten years. These are the groupings that make up the six sections of the book. For clarity, each chapter will contain the relevant revelations in a large font.

As An Afternoon’s Dictation is published, however deep the hole in which we find ourselves, we face a basic truth. We can accept living in that deep hole or not. And if we reject living in this emotional and spiritual hole, we are going to need each other to climb out. However difficult and long that climb, I believe we owe the effort to our children and to children yet to come. And as we make that climb, may we free our souls of the fear of “them” that has so crippled our efforts to this moment.

I particularly want to include in our effort to climb out of that darkness, those of my human family who question all spiritual paths, and most particularly any who feel excluded as “other” by people who cleave to a particular path and a particular definition of the divine. We are in this together, all of us. Let us exclude none of good will and join hands as we come together to free ourselves from the spiritual abyss.

We must hang on to hope and each other—and then work together to make that hope real. We are one family. If we will embrace that and work together, we may just come through this.

Last, I want to hold high two important books that have been and remain hugely helpful. There are indeed many important and wonderful books out there. I want to point out two books on the scriptures of our world’s spiritual traditions that I’ve found especially valuable. One Heart: Universal Wisdom from the World’s Scriptures (Marlowe & Company) and World Scripture: A Comparative Anthology of Sacred Text” (Paragon House). I am grateful for both books, and the reader should know that as I sought examples from differing scriptures, I particularly consulted these two books and have used them as a source for quotes throughout the book. A heartfelt THANK YOU to Andrew Wilson, who edited World Scripture, and Bonnie Louise Kuchler, who edited One Heart. I would strongly recommend both books to anyone seeking to delve even more deeply into our diverse and profound scriptures.

Awards this book has earned
Winner. London Book Festival
Literary Titan gold award
Indies Today runner-up
Firebird Book Awards honorable mention
Pacific Book Award finalist (runner-up)
The BookFest honorable mention
Chanticleer International Book Awards finalist
American Legacy Book Awards finalist

For more posts about this book and its author, click HERE.


Sign up for the MSI Press LLC monthly newsletter
(recent releases, sales/discounts, awards, reviews, Amazon top 100 list, author advice, and more -- stay up to date)

Follow MSI Press on TwitterFace Book, and Instagram. 

Interested in publishing with MSI Press LLC?
Check out information on how to submit a proposal.

Planning on self-publishing and don't know where to start?
Our author au pair services will mentor you through the process.

Interested in receiving a free copy of this or any MSI Press LLC book
 in exchange for reviewing a current or forthcoming MSI Press LLC book?
Contact editor@msipress.com.

Want an author-signed copy of this book?
Purchase the book at 25% discount (use coupon code FF25)
and concurrently send a written request to orders@msipress.com.
Want to communicate with one of our authors?
You can!
Find their contact information on our Authors' Pages.

   
MSI Press is ranked among the top publishers in California.
Check out our rankings -- and more --
 HERE.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

In Memoriam: Carl Don Leaver

A Publisher's Conversation with Authors: Book Marketing vs Book Promotion