Henry's Hiatus

Folks, many many thanks for the well wishes and communications during my hiatus. Amazingly, after six months of no new posts, some of you still visit. Your loyalty alone has brought me back with a promise to be more faithful.

So let's see... I think it best to avoid all the politics until dear Henry gets back on his feet. Instead, I'll pique your interest with a recent book I have just read. The novel, A Good and Happy Child by Justin Evans, tells the story of George Davies who mysteriously cannot come to hold his new born child. After many months, eventually he seeks a therapist who helps him unpack a confusing past. This past entails horrific details that eventually lead adult Davies to begin a series of journals. These journals eventually tell the tale that involves demonic possession, exorcism, murder, and supernatural occurrences.

The novel also brings up serious questions about faith, and thankfully does not devalue or eliminate the notion of faith having a serious and important place in society. It proffers not a political agenda, instead it asks a pertinent question: does evil exist and is faith the way to combat it?

I cannot help but believe that the ubiquity of therapy and therapists is simply a replacement for what the church used to provide. People want to talk to someone who will lend them the patient ear and offer, perhaps, a consoling word. Organized religion has gotten beaten up in years past, but people's personal problems remain. They seek so many answers to dark, hidden questions, and they will willingly pay by the hour to get to the bottom of things.

People often dismiss the church out of convenience. Hence, they make excuses not to visit their place of worship because it intrudes on their personal time. (For the matter of full disclosure, your dear Henry has oft delivered this excuse to his family. Shame on me.) However, who cannot visit a church or cathedral when few are present and not feel some inner calm? That calm is spirit, my friends and dear readers, and spirit is how you combat the uglies deep inside you.

Evans' book is a winner. It abounds with lucid imagery, meticulous research, and creepy tone. Who would know of documented exorcisms that find their ways into his prose? Who would know of accounts of possession and Christianity's answer to the problem if not for one man, Evans, willing to make numerous trips to a library and (GASP!) research actual books that document these events.

So go get it. Here's a link. But read it during the day time. Your imagination will get the better of you, and you might just need to find someone wearing the familiar black and white collar.