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To Be or Not to Be: The Musings of a Schizophrenic Truck Driver

by Albert Wessel

486 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); catalogue #06-0463; ISBN 1-4120-8707-4; US$29.36, C$29.36, EUR20.06, £15.16

To be or not to be. I hope Hamlet doesn't mind but we can't put off answering that question much longer.

About the Book

Assuming intelligence on a personal basis is a very limiting and a highly overrated concept. Those who are smarter than you will obviously not see you as intelligent, and those who are not as smart as you, do not have the intelligence to appreciate your intelligence. Only through low intelligence can we be left with a capacity to believe ourselves to be greater than others.

But we all have a place in the grand scheme of things. We are coming to the day when we will see ourselves as not smart or dumb or this and that, but as having come into this world within a certain strict framework that we may have a unique experience. Which means that the day is coming when the question of intelligence or mentally challenged or any other category we can think of, will no longer be relevant. We will say, 'none of the above'.

Rather we will see ourselves as Divine and perfect and we will be aware that we each have put ourselves within a certain unique framework to have a unique experience by which to learn to express our uniqueness. And we will know that this expression has always been about being; that we express through being. And that's why we are referred to as human beings. And that therefore being is the only criteria by which we may gauge success. Only through being might we express and be more of what we are. So if we must question ourselves, we may ask: Are we being or are we not? More accurately: Are we aware of being? To be or not to be is indeed the only valid question. We are all challenged: We are each challenged to conscious awareness of being.

About the Author

Most books have a little something 'about the author'. So I will graciously bow to convention for this. My understanding is that this is usually done by someone other than the author. The only trouble though, is that I can't find anybody who knows me well enough or has dared to declare herself or himself to be that close to me.

But even if I did find a kindred spirit with the capacity and the necessary qualifications to kindly do this for me, it would be almost the only outside input for this little endeavor. With the exception of some criticism I received for chapter one, and some proof reading, what you're getting is all me. And too, who really knows someone else anyway? Although I do feel that I know myself better after all this writing. So who better than me to create a little piece 'about the author'?

Still, if we are going to insist on outside commentary, I do recall a couple of remarks I have heard about myself that may be useful and that I will include, along with my responses:

#1 / Some people say that I am very deep. But I think that anyone who dug down a little, would find that deep down, I'm really quite shallow.

#2 / I have been told that I am too serious. My reply to that, is that yes, I am always serious, but especially when I am joking.

And if that's not enough this is the real me:

I did indeed spend over half a century in 'semi' isolation. And I have been blessed with an insatiable appetite for knowledge and understanding. So I consider myself extremely fortunate to have spent a lifetime in a framework where I was free to think. Who has more time to think than a truck driver? Mind you, in more recent times, C.B. radios and heavy traffic have been a distraction. But even that has been manageable. By the time these bothersome things came to pass, I had established habits that kept the outer world at bay. I keep my distance in traffic and luckily I was able to find the off switch for the C.B.

Which means that 'about the author' in my case can all be put in one sentence: I believe that everyone must find their own truth and I am serious about humor.