Why I wrote Harold's Will

The genesis of the book began when I became disillusioned with man-made religions when I was in high school. A friend and I played our guitars and sang at the folk masses at our local church every Sunday. Then one day the priest told us that all future folk masses had been canceled because of a complaint the Bishop had received concerning the long-haired hippies at the mass. That would have been me and my friend, it was the sixties.

I didn't give it too much thought at the time, but playing my guitar and singing was the only reason I attended mass, that and family tradition. So both my friend and I stopped going to mass. 
I probably would have become like so many other failed Catholics and simply stopped participating had I not made the mistake of doing some research into the history of the church. 

What I found was shocking. What I found left me with the belief that the Catholic Church had all the flaws of any man-made organization that had been around for 2000 years. I won't list even the top ten atrocities of the church, if you are interested they are easy to find, but I will say that once I knew what they were I couldn't continue being a part of the church. However, having been raised with faith, it was difficult for me to ignore or stop believing in something. So I made up my own concept of a God. 

Until I wrote this book I never shared my ideas with anyone, not even my family. The reason that I did not share my ideas about eternal life, spirits, and a loving supreme being was that in contrast to the Christian faith, the Muslim faith, or any other type of religious faith, mine is not a faith, it is not something that I believe in. It is an idea of one possibility. I don't believe that I know what happens after death, my story is simply an idea that makes some sense to me. 

While I have a lot of problems with man-made religions, especially the Catholic Church, I have no issue with any faith. I do not want to talk Christians out of their belief in Christ, and the Holy Trinity. In fact, I am more than open to listening to why someone might feel that their idea of the hereafter is more credible than mine.
 
So why the story about Harold? There were two reasons, first I wanted people to enjoy reading my ideas, and second I wanted to be clear that they are only ideas. So I wrapped them into a fictional story. 

What I discovered after I wrote the book was even more interesting. But I will discuss that in my next post.