The Book - cough - to Change Lives

Given the last few politically charged posts, let's take a different direction to calm down a little.

My wife came home with a book today. The lady at the grocery store - those experts - told her it was going to change her life.

This is how she introduced the book. "I bought a book that's going to change my life."

Now this is not to suggest that my wife is gullible. Far from it. She's just not as suspicious and skeptical as I am. Nor does she obsess in exaggerating the implications one book may have on society like the Da Vinci Code elicited once upon a time. My wife possesses far more intelligence than me so I sometimes take her comments seriously. She's an apolitical chill out kinda gal.

So she waited for me to answer as I sat down to eat my spaghetti alla carbonara - one of my all-time favorite dishes. Actually, I think for my next post I will disclose my favorite dishes for you all. But first, this piece of nonsense.

"What did you waste your money on? The Secret?" I asked.

"How did you know? The clerk at Loblaws (a grocery store like Publix to you Americans) said it was amazing. Why are you rolling your eyes."

"New Age mumbo jumbo. Anyways, read it. All that positive energy can't hurt us since we finally got the capital to launch the business."

"Then I'll get right to it," she replies.

Other than that I was at a loss for words. I just don't get how books like these catch fire like they do. Are we that insecure? Have we become that unhappy? Jaded and cynical? Why do we latch on to books that supposedly tell truths and secrets? Have we been leading lives of lies?

"New age mumbo-jumbo." This is the best I could do. The phenomena perplexes me on so many planes I can't even focus on how to discuss it. Oh, get this. I also said:

"Bend over. I'll show you the secret."

It was a slow day.

Like I said. My head visits the gutter often. Not my wife's.