Tripping Through Growthland
by
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There is a flavor of Candide as the character, Johnny Straight, leaves his hometown of Backlands, Kansas ( Main Street USA ) to explore the world and his inner self. The book is a humorous, good natured treatment of various techniques and organizations that are designed to expand a person’s consciousness and spiritual growth. The methodology used is to show the paradoxes of the teachings with regard to choice, responsibility , change, and rational thinking. Johnny does grow as he progresses from one experience to another, which is illustrated in ways visually evident to the astute observer. His relationships with women also become more personal. Johnny gets high without using the drugs ( legal and illegal ) that permeate our society, and the book has many high metaphors, typically in airplanes. There is an Eastern saying to the effect that one needs to put one’s face in the dirt, or worse, in order to reach enlightenment, and Johnny does experience some discomfort on his journey. He finds that no one technique or group is the total way in itself, but that these techniques and groups can facilitate his quest, which brings him to an unexpected but not surprising conclusion.
A wag has said that a good stumble prevents a good fall , and you should experience a toe stumping, foot stomping, “sole” jiving journey as you trip with Johnny through Growthland. And if you prefer pictures to the hard job of reading, the whole book is a series of picture cartoon situations with captions.
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About the Book
To persons outside the booga-booga society, “New Age” shenanigans are for the birds. But, then, they haven’t met Johnny, whose whimsical pilgrimage on the circuitous spiritual path propels him from a mountainous pile of dirt to Enlightenment. Captured in a series of hilarious cartoons, the protagonist’s trek toward cosmic consciousness is an experimental jaunt guaranteed to provide the reader with a visual treat. Through author William H. McRae’s wry and sharp observations in this tongue in cheek story, the reader will experience the dichotomies indicative of those aspiring a spiritual path. Taking us back in time to an almost forgotten era—the spiritual evolution of the seventies-- McRae shows us that the spiritual path is not unlike the rocky road to love, which has its share of potholes. Johnny’s experiences parody both the search for perfection and the sometimes dubious and wacky methods a seeker explores trying to get there. In the cartoons, we witness physical as well as psychological changes inherent in Johnny’s change of consciousness, as he lumbers up the proverbial sacred mountain.
Strange juxtapositions and unlikely companions populate Johnny’s landscape—again a true to life experience for those who look outside the standard quintessential box for answers to eternal questions. Look for both “sole and soul” food, as Johnny climbs the slippery slope to Nirvana. Tripping through Growthland is a rich visual jaunt, and a chance to look into the labyrinthine mind of an attorney who has been there, done that, and continues to sally along the path searching for answers. One might conclude with this question, “Could an attorney really have written this?” If Tripping through Growthland inspires you to ask your own questions, perhaps you, too, will realize that any spiritual quest will lead you through many places back to yourself, for the truth always lies within.
Tripping through Growthland is a deep metaphysical belly laugh, and, at the same time, it engages the reader using humorous illustrated wisdom about the spiritual path with its ups and downs and round abouts. It''s a stitch!
Betsy Dillard Stroud Artist/Writer Author of Painting from the Inside Out
About the Author
William H. McRae is an attorney-at-law who practices in Dallas, Texas. He graduated summa cum laude with a major in political science from SMU in 1959 and from the SMU School of Law, cum laude, in 1962. He completed this book in 1979 and his law practice and other activities interrupted any project to get the book published until now. This is his first and only book. Being a Gemini, his interests have focused not only on the practicalities of the law and the body politic, but also on mankind’s place as spiritual beings with a mission to learn in a physical world. McRae personally participated in many of the experiences, or similar ones, that are humorously presented in the book, and many of the cartoons reflect what he thought or felt, with quite a bit of hyperbole of course.