Lynda Symans

Preface

April 3, 2015

Recently a friend of mine asked me why didn’t I bring TGBI01 up to date – I wrote “The Great Beyond – 101” a little under 15 years ago. As I told my friend, I have done that very thing almost every day since it was published for a nanosecond in the year 2000 - reams of days of thoughts. It’s really a journal now not a book. I could make a book out of it all or 4 or 5 but for now let’s get the original out there somewhere and then maybe I’ll put the years together and create one big tome – by then I might even have an editor who will help me do that.

The bones are in this first effort. Good bones – funny bones…lots of bones to spit out or chew on. I keep a copy of the original in my bathroom because, like the Architectural Digest I also keep there, it inspires me daily and I mean laugh out loud appreciate myself inspired. Architectural Digest with its cool homes and locals doesn’t do near that for me but I love the pictures. My book inspires me in the way that it does because it’s me in there – the real knowing me – the utterly safe, utterly loved me. I can’t resist me – I’m always with me – that’ s the great thing about being me – I’m not going anywhere and I have gifted myself with the trust to talk to this aspect of me any time I want to and I didn’t have to have a near-dearth experience to find me. I was there all the time. Speak of near death experiences - I just read about a neurosurgeon who came out of a coma and wrote about his experience in heaven and how his life was forever more changed (in a good trusting way). GODDAMNIT…he found his essence just like I found mine. I recognized that immediately because essence (and we all are) has the same feeling of wonder but he gets to publish a fucking book because he’s a neurosurgeon AND he went into a coma – so dramatic…

“Take a breath, puppy. This is America…he can do whatever he wants. You just continue on here and we’ll get this sucker out there too. Timing, remember?”

Thanks, Twink. This is Twink - more about him later. The Great Beyond 101 is a dialogue between me and me. My great sadness is that Fran Lebowitz will never read this book - scoff maybe, if news of it ever comes her way, but never read. She’s one of the people who inspired me to write. What took me so long to get this out there somewhere? Timing. I wasn’t ready to share me with the rest of the world. I’m not sure I’m ready now. I can still hear Fran – people who write books should