Journey Notes

Immediately following the experience, there I am, at Barnes and Noble and realize Wow there are a lot of books here. How do I know which one to get? I wandered around the store half expecting another dramatic sign but by this time my connection seemed completely gone and I was completely back to my normal state, so I just decided to wander around and see if any of the titles or covers caught my eye. I did think logically “hey I should get a Bible” but I already had one and thought “too cliché and obvious.” There was one book that seemed to stand out but it was full price and I thought “I am sure God knows how totally cheap I am and would keep the recommendation to the discount section.” The other reason I originally resisted getting the book is that it was about math and “I am sure God knows I struggle to calculate a tip, so that can’t be right.” I was aware of the irony that I had had this totally amazing revelation and here I was still arguing with God in my head.

I did get another book and went home but the math book cover kept flashing in my mind’s eye all that night and the next morning. I called in sick that Friday morning and went back to Barnes & Noble and bought it even though funds were low, figuring God would somehow bring in some more money to cover it. (Somehow I never even missed the money from my budget.) The book was Mystery of the Aleph. I read the whole thing in one day and I am a slow reader AND amazingly I understood the entire book, which it turns out, was about “abstract math” and very different from regular math, at least for my mind. It is about a mathematician that came up with a mathematical expression to describe the experience I had just had. This book also very briefly introduced me to a couple of subjects that have been important steps in my journey. The mystical Jewish Kabbala, and Sir Isaac Newton’s research on the Bible Code.