Bear with me. This is going to go the long way around.

I believe in Discordianism. To the followers of Eris the numbers 23 and 5 are sacred. The number 23 has a strange way of showing up in all sorts of interesting places, and of course 2+3 is 5.

You can find all kinds of interesting things about 23 here – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/23_(numerology) and here – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/23_(number)

For me the best bit is – “In interviews, (Robert Anton) Wilson has acknowledged the self-fulfilling nature of the 23 enigma, implying that the real value of the Laws of Fives and Twenty-threes lies in their demonstration of the mind’s power to perceive “truth” in nearly anything.” “Truth” here meaning meaning.

So, the other day I saw a poster for the new Jim Carey movie “The Number 23″. It’s a paranoid delusional joy ride through the 23 Enigma. Looks to be fun. It got me thinking on such things as how we make up so much of our own meaning and what the philosophers I have been studying lately have said about that – Nietzsche, Kant, Hume, Heidegger, etc. They have all had interesting things to say on the subject. Even occasionally very meaningful.

I belong to the Eris of Discord tribe and was taking a gander in between frantic bursts of work activity. There is a thread there titled – “grab nearest book. turn to page 23. post 5th sentence.” It’s fun. So, I grabbed the nearest book and this is what I find on page 23, sentence 5 – “You are going to write.”

This is beautifully meaningful (at least I am making it so) because over the last two years I have been slowly ramping up on living my long held dream of being a fiction writer. I finished my second novel (to first draft stage) a couple of weeks back and have been steadily writing more. I take the above to mean Eris is on my side, and with the matron of discord at my back I can hardly fail.

Of course it’s all made up anyways, but then again, what else is fiction?

Today I wandered into the Borders half a block from work, which is a fairly standard pre-lunch ritual for me. I had the second half of the gift card my brother gave me for X-mass in my pocket, my email 25% coupon from Borders, and $1.81 left in Holiday Credit from Borders which is a reward for spending money there over the last year (They have a LOT of marketing gimmicks.)

I meandered over to the Philosophy section and what should be propped up on the shelf at eye level and staring at me but The Undead and Philosophy: Chicken Soup for the Soulless, another installment in the series I love so much, Popular Culture and Philosophy from Open Court press. I snatched it up quicker than a newly re-born vampire digging his new fangs into some delicious neck on his first night out!

This is the latest in a serious of fortunate events and coincidences that have been pointing me down the undead path over the last few months. In the program I am in for dealing with my compulsive over eating issues, writing is emphasized as an essential tool for uncovering the stuff we addictive types cover up with our addiction practices. It is ironic that I, a long time dreamer of becoming a writer who was always too scared to try, should become involved in such a program. That provided the first steps in my exploring the possibility of making my dream a reality. However, I have had difficulty doing actual program writing. Instead I got more, and more, into fiction writing. Last year I made my second attempt at NaNoWriMo and succeeded in completing 50,000 words of a fiction novel in one month. I put aside an idea I was working on concerning a nice guy vampire and gothic chick, and a zombie priest story, to write a wild tale about a guy secretly working for special zombie hunting teams attached to the CDC. The irony hit me one night when I realized that my subconscious had been tricking me into doing program writing when I thought I was not. I mean, what better fictional metaphor for the somnambulistic state achieved by indulging in a food addiction than zombies!

Then, for X-mass, my company gave us hoodies that say ‘I’d rather be killing zombies’ across the back.

Then, I get the book today.

The universe seems to be pointing me along a path of understanding my condition, and living my dream of being a fiction writer, and learning philosophy all at the same time.

I am tickled pink.