I dedicate this collection to the loyal citizens of the United States of America who call themselves
Christians. Too many have died so that we all could call ourselves free.
“May this nation, under God, have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by
the people, and for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”
Abraham Lincoln – Gettysburg Address, 1863
Lincoln asked an aide why no one applauded his speech when he gave it at Gettysburg. The aide replied, Sir, people do not applaud prayers.
No one is more surprised by the success of Dare to Dream than me. No one is a success without customers. In the reading world the customers are the readers. I wanted to do something to thank my customers, the readers out there. This follow-on collection to Dare to Dream is my „thank you‟ to the readers.
I have always been fascinated by Heart of Darkness type stories. The moral or ethical dilemmas posed in these stories are the closest type of story I know of to the real world and its everyday choices. These stories show us even our simplest of decisions can have major consequences. Every day is a sort of crossroads. We may not recognize the pinnacle moment at the time but if we look back in our lives how often was there a moment which if it did not happen would change everything about us? I dare to say those moments happen all the time.
I have always pointed to Joseph Conrad’s Lord Jim as the best example of the Heart of Darkness story (even better than Conrad’s Heart of Darkness itself). In it the main character wants to be a hero but does not make the decision which could have made him an instant hero. The contrast is made clear by the man who does help out the stricken ship by volunteering to remain on its deck as the wreck is being towed to safety. At any time the ship could sink and his only purpose was to cut the tow line to avoid the wreck from dragging the towing ship to its doom also. He paid almost no heed to the position he was in and had a grand dinner on board the wreck as it was being towed. Jim could have been the hero then and there but was a coward and left the ship when the crew thought it was certain to sink. The rest of Lord Jim is Jim’s redemption story. Lord Jim is a true masterpiece.
The modern world knows more movies than books and the most compelling Heart of Darkness movie is Apocalypse Now. Marlin Brando does a masterful portrayal of an army Colonel who has done what he was trained to do, win in combat. He made the command decisions to eliminate the enemy but became the one who was feared. He became the dragon so to speak. The Eastern expression „To hunt dragons you must first become a dragon‟ is all to true. Do we lose our souls in the process of „becoming the dragon‟? Is there a way back to our everyday lives once the goal is achieved?
In Clint Eastwood’s High Plains Drifter he is asked at one point what do we do afterwards. His pointed answer is “you live with it”. Now I have explained what I have tried to convey here. The ethical and moral pitfalls of being a follower of Christ are the main topics of this collection. Christ sent out the seventy without provisions and told them to spread the word. We are charged to do the same. We all pray we don’t fail our Master in our assigned missions. If we are human, and we all are, we will make mistakes. How you respond to your failures truly defines your character. “Living with” the consequences of our actions is not always easy.
I will transition into the first story. “The Survivor‟ is my attempt at a Heart of Darkness story with religious implications. There was a wreck lost in 1866 called the General Grant. Patrick Coughey was an actual survivor of the shipwreck. I offer my apologies to his family. The story is fiction. I have moved the site of the wreck from near New Zealand to a more tropical setting (you choose where). I have no idea whether the conditions I describe in the story even exist in reality. The story is plausible.