Another Dead Author

Along with his contemplation of a God was his fascination and borderline obsession, with science and science-fiction. What was fascinating for me while reading his journal was that in the 1950’s, 60’s and the start of the 70’s, the literature that was done on science of that time made Joseph fantasize of the what ifs.  In that era, science fiction, the what ifs, and factual science were just a few years apart.

The fascination with his writings for me truly began when I realized that most of my father’s dreams and ideas of the future had come true. They were so innocent at the time of his writings that they reflected a naivety in society that has been lost today.  Some of his other innocent ideas that fascinated me were discovering DNA and walking on the moon, even though we had just put a man into space.  Little did he know that we would walk on the moon and discover the genetic code of our DNA giving us the ability to clone a human being.  Ironically, the birth control pill was just being introduced as a method of population control.

Something I find not fascinating but horrifying are the conflicts that humans have been enduring, which were brought on themselves.  One of the biggest conflicts concerns moral issues.  Society and the moral code that make govern it are constantly changing today just as they were in the past.  I personally believe they change with each new generation and it’s hard for the generations before to understand the moral codes of the new.  My father wrote of a decaying society because of changing morals during his time, yet he believed it was going to be saved by science and its advancements.  In the world today morals are once again ready to change with my generation.  Our conflicts are now constant and seem like they will never change.

Our wars have changed, our science is common place and we have come to the point of utmost decadence in American society.  This could become our downfall unless our morals change.  If we do not speak out or allow ourselves to change, then our decadence will destroy us.

I think the most horrifying thing that I got from these writings on world chaos is that most of the conflicts my father had seen erupt in the late 50’s until the 70’s are still going on.  The United States has thrown itself into the middle of many of these conflicts, not looking within its own bubble to see its own discord.

Within his journal, there are many other ideas, fantasies and daydreams that are written for us to see the simplicity of how things were.  In the 50’s and 60’s people still daydreamed of the what ifs and whys.  Today those simple childhood ideas no longer exist for people because of the advancement in science.  The childlike daydreams in Joseph’s journal are comforting to read knowing that, at one time, humanity was less complex and the people were more simple.  They also allow us to see how quickly things became complex, thus creating the chaotic world we live in today.  This happened especially after the Korean and Viet Nam Wars and the assassinations of John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr.

To escape from his inner turbulence and the turbulence rising in the world around him, Joseph would write; something he had done since he was a child.  Included in this book are his short stories.  Some of them are dark, a lot cynical, and most are very bizarre.

Unfortunately he never published these stories.  I’m not sure why and I’ll never know.  I personally believe he numbed himself a little too much with the alcohol that eventually caused his death.  Fortunately, somewhere along the way I picked up my father’s love of writing and to my surprise our thoughts are almost identical with the exception of our beliefs in a God.

Sadly he was never able to find that God he was looking for.  The one that was staring back at him every time he looked into the mirror.  The one he opened my eyes to.