A Walk on the Dark Side.

"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." So begins Haydn's masterpiece "The Creation". But he did not just create that, he created the deep as well. "And darkness was upon the face of the deep". Well for the past 4 days I have visited the deep in the company of the incomparable Mintu.

When I came home from yet another overwhelming week at work on Friday I was not sure I had the energy to spend 4 days with my friend of 33 years. I knew glimpses of his life from his e mails and what Heather had told me. I knew I would be remembering walking on the dark side and that we are very different people. Yet today I emerged invigorated.

That is it, we both walked in darkness for so long on other sides of the globe. Me through madness and Mintu through addiction. We had a lot in common. I don't know whether it was God who changed out lives. I know my dad would believe that. Mum too if she were still with us. Both of us had spiritual experiences of a Buddhist flavour. In my folly I have turned my back on that but he has not.

What really matters though is that we both got out, alive, different and well. I fear a return of my madness but I sense Mintu does not fear a return to his addiction. I hope we meet again before another 30 years elapses. I do think though that those 4 days of inspirations, talking in the way that only crazies can has helped me move away from the abyss on whose edge I have teetered for the last few desolate months.

Today I received 2 pieces of good news. Beka has completed the cover of "Charon's Ferry" and the publisher has given me an estimated timetable of 2 months until publication of the paperback. I will start a final proof when I return from dad's next week. Before then though we will experience the first anniversary of mum's death. God it has gone fast. So think of us on Thursday as we mourn our dead. It is but 1 day in a long journey. We all experience loss in our journey. Mintu and I should surely have been lost a long time ago. But we survived. Until next time.

I Heard a Voice.