Beyond Everydayness

The Other Half of Life, my first book, was based on an attempt to design a life for myself that would fit the conditions of that new situation of freedom that I happened to find myself to be in, upon my retirement. I had very little inclination of what that freedom would have for me. It was because of that intricate way in which I had been tied up with the world that I so much wanted to free myself from it. My ultimate aim had been to become a writer and to make my life be different from what it had been. It was by acknowledging and accepting that freedom as a way of being that possibilities for doing so and to go beyond what I could not have dreamed about became such a significant aspect of my life. I could not see why the goal of becoming a writer or doing anything else that I choose to do could not be made to happen. I knew that health and fitness had to become a necessity. The perspective of having a clear mind and to exist beyond the concerns and matters of the external world and the everydayness of life had not been that much of a challenge. It is by being in this situation of freedom and with possibilities arising from every corner that I can now go back to that being of self that I have been made to be to try to understand what it really means to be me. In a way, living with freedom and possibility has allowed me to look at the different dimensions of my being and at the lived realities of my life, and to investigate further into whatever way there may be to take my being to the limit of what is possible for me. This book is an attempt to look at the question of what it means to be that has come out from that direct experience of the way that I have experienced it to be. It is in no way meant to be a prescription for life.

-- Pooran Latchman