Read an Excerpt
FORWARD TO SIGNALS
I was gazing last night at the Bridges of Florence. They are beautiful during the daytime, but even more breathtaking at night. With their sparkling lights and stately majesty, they bring a special magic to this very special city in Italy, and as I looked upon them last night, strolling in the gentle breezes of the Piazzale Michelangelo above the city, I was struck with a powerful metaphor.
Bridges are the most important part of our life.
I think Albert may have sent me that thought.
Who is Albert? Ah, that is something for you to find out, right here, in this remarkable book. I didn't know anything about Albert until I got back to my hotel room after last evening's drive to the piazzala. I'd been carrying Joel Rothschild's book, Signals, around with me for days, through Korea, through Oslo, and through half of Italy, as I journeyed forth through a world tour to carry to people around the globe the message of Conversations with God, which, in beautiful summation, is simply, we are all one. As I met people of differing cultures and traditions, of differing languages and backgrounds and beliefs, I pondered each day, more and more as the trip went on: how can we get this idea of Oneness across to all humans everywhere? How can I close the gap which separates us, leaving us each marooned on our own shore? Then I stood last night above the city of Florence, saw the reflection of the bridges on the waters on the Fiumo Arno, and I received my gift of insight.
When I awoke this morning, I felt an urgent need to read Joel's manuscript. Not a bit of a need, not a medium-sized need-an urgent need. So I plunged into it. The tour of the Galleria dell'Accademia, the viewing of the original David, would have to wait. There was something else-some other art, some other gift of inestimable beauty-I was to receive this day.
I have received that gift, and now I pass it on to you. If you are reading this, you are holding it in your hands. Do not put it down. Do not return it to the shelf, or to the table, or to the place whence it came. Take it home with you. You are meant to have this gift, or you would not have found a way to bring it to you. Now all that is left is for you to be willing to receive it.
This book is a bridge. It is a bridge between worlds, and a bridge between the worlds we create within this world. And this bridge could make a world of difference. For it will bridge the gap for many, between what they know, and what they think they know, and what is really so, about all the world-and the world after this world.
This is a book about life and death and love and God and, well, just all of it. It was written by a gay man, and it therefore holds the gay experience on its pages. Whether you are gay or straight, I believe you will experience that as a great bridge for all of us. I have been looking for such a bridge for a very long time, and especially since the Conversations with God dialogue, which made it explicitly clear that God embraces homosexuals in His eternal and everlasting love, just as He embraces all of us. I have been searching, ever since then, for a way to carry this message to all the world, and to that part of the world which is gay, that we might heal the divisions between us-between all of us.not just gays and straights, but blacks and whites, Christians and Jews, Muslims and Eastern Orthodox Christians, Irish Catholics and Protestants, men and women, and any of the other artificial separations that we have created between us.
I've found that bridge here, in a beautiful book that closes the greatest gap of all-the gulf in our understandings of Life and Death-as well. Do I agree with everything is this book? Every inference, every nuance, every shade of meaning? No. Perhaps that is a sign of my limited ability to totally comprehend, or maybe it's just a healthy indication of my continuing unwillingness to close myself to all the questions. I want to leave some more things open for me to yet discover. Yet I find the largest portion of what is written here more than merely inspiring. I find it illuminating; a revelation of enormous impact and importance.
Still, I must tell you that there is one statement in Joel's book with which I totally disagree. It is just the fourth sentence of the book. That sentence reads, "As human beings, we are all quite limited in our ability to understand each other's experience." Joel himself-with the eloquence of his writing, the depth of his insight, the openness and the honesty and the courage of his sharing, and the absolute purity of his intent-has turned that statement into a lie. I understand his experience completely. So, too, will you. For he has spoken here with a voice that resides in all of us, and has thus given voice to the part of each of us which yearns to be heard. It is that part of us which knows of love, and which seeks to express and experience that love unconditionally, and eternally. This is something we all understand, this is something we all hold in common, this is that which transcends our petty and shallow and cosmetic differences, and binds us together in oneness.
You do not need to be gay to understand this book, or the people in it. You merely need to be human, and to be in touch with your humanity. Yet the beauty of this book is that its effect is circular-it will put you in touch with your humanity, even if you were not there at the outset. And then it will do something more. It will put you in touch with that part of yourself which is greater than your humanity. It will cause you to see Who You Really Are.
This book answers your life's greatest question. It allows you to know that answer before your death, which will be your life's greatest gift. And so, this book is that Treasure of Treasures for which every thinking person searches. It is a source of eternal truth. It contains what I call Becalming Wisdom, allowing the mind to rest at last in sure and certain knowledge that what our own soul has been telling us from the beginning has been true.
We have been waiting for a long time for such a signal. Now, here again, God sends it to us. In yet another form. Through yet another voice. At yet another time.
Thank you, Joel, for speaking with courage and wisdom and love.
Neale Donald Walsch
September 3, 1999
Florence, Italy
