Chapter Three, Page One:

Sometimes things happen that makes your day. Today made my life. I learned two things today, either of which individually would have sufficed to mark this life worthwhile. It is too good. Thank you, thank you to the living universe, thank you.

On Monday, I reluctantly submitted to an energy healing on the advice of my friend Val. I don't know what I expected to gain, but yes Mom, if Val told me to jump off a bridge I would do it. I trust her implicitly. So I experienced an energy healing, and it was a bit woo-woo, and I didn't feel anything. Among other things, however, the [Conduit? Healer? Practitioner?] claimed that I had energy cordings to my ex-wife, Jeung, which were better severed. I disagreed at first, but the fact that I felt myself bristle and resist when she suggested that I sever ties was evidence enough for me that I was still attached. So she severed the energy cords (I feel a powerful urge to put all of these terms in quotation marks), and sent me on my way. I called Jeung today to tell her of the passing of a mutual friend, although we haven't spoken for a year and she made it very clear that I was not to contact her. She was pleased to inform me that she became engaged just a few days ago, shortly after my energy healing.

Point number one: I am absolved. I have carried such a ponderous burden of guilt about our parting that I haven't really felt clean or good since. From my perspective, it seemed that a truly good woman (and rest assured that good is the only word in my extensive vocabulary that applies) gave me her heart and I broke it. How could any amount of philanthropy or self-sacrifice possibly absolve me of such monumental evil and weakness? I have, therefore, secretly been telling myself that I am a bad man for years. If Jeung is to be married, however (and I know her family will not allow it unless it is a world-class match) then she is not broken after all, and redemption is in sight.

Point number two: The universe works. There are such things as coincidences, but this cannot be one. Not only did my severing ties with her seemingly free her to become engaged, but the universe conspired to tell me about it (the sudden appearance at work of a mutual friend whom I haven't seen in years, who told me of the passing of another likewise distant mutual friend, which gave me the pretense under which to call, for example). Furthermore, she said, "I had a feeling you would call . . ." even though there was no way I could have known of her engagement, nor any way she could have known I would disregard the DNR order on our communication. It is of these feelings and energy cordings that I have always believed the universe to be constructed, and there are no words to describe the expansive relief that accompanies this evidence. I am so used to sending messages into the void with nothing more than a vague notion that they are recieved by somebody greater than I am, and I have expected to do so ad infinitum. I still trust my instinctual experience of the universe, but I suspect that I could not have sustained a belief on such an elusive wisp of understanding indefinitely. This tiny glimpse of a priori knowledge is enough to sustain me for years in my faith that the universe is actually a functioning system. It is too good. Thank you, thank you in every language and in no language, thank you.