Further Along the Path

By Edward Neu

Further Along the Path is a sequel to Unknown Destinations. It follows Joe, an internal-medicine doctor and teacher, over his next few years, during a time when he marries and contracts a chronic progressive medical disease. A few more subjects, such as further talks of the nature of time, the changes in the environment, and some talk of medical disease, occur through the progress of the story.

The book ends with Joes new perspective toward his chronic illness.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Nov 11, 2013
• ISBN: 9781493122370

Edward Neu

Dr. Neu is a retired physician of internal medicine who, because of a chronic health condition, no longer practices the art of medicine. He trained in the Chicago area and, besides his teaching there, ran a private practice in primary care over twenty years. His first and second books follow the exploits of a hematologist, Joe, his wife, Mary, and their child, Sean, introduced at the beginning of the third book. Dr. Neu lives with his wife, Marihelen, in a southern suburb of Chicago. He enjoys reading and writing books based on medical and metaphysical fictional subjects.

Book preview

CHAPTER ONE

A Slow Clock

Time seemed to move quickly at some times and at other times like a slowly ticking clock. Ever since he had lost Anna, Joe felt the slow movement of his sense of being—like that of the inexorably slow-moving ticktock of the clock, which took place over time recently.

It felt as if time was actually moving at half speed, akin to a slug moving at a rate like it had been chilled. And maybe time itself was chilled and slowed down by an existing effort present at the time. This was the effect felt by Joe as he went on through time, which was managing his day.

Joe’s role in life was to bring a sense of life to the forefront, to feel an attitude occasioned by the necessity of time. Despite Joe’s best efforts, time was going to pass whether he wanted it to or not. As much as he missed Anna, Joe enjoyed talking about the meaning of life with Mary.

The fact still existed that he deeply missed Anna’s presence. Despite finding her presence lacking, he was able to find solace in Mary’s existence. Mary could be found frequently in Joe’s ruminations. His thoughts of Mary were often in his deepest musings of Anna and of their time together. The more he thought about Mary, the more thoughts of Anna were on his mind.

Joe knew that his thoughts of Anna were never going to abate no matter how much he tried to concentrate on his work, and no matter how hard he tried, thoughts of Anna were going to remain constantly on his mind. What caused this to happen, he didn’t fully understand, only that it happened. While at times it was disconcerting, he generally liked these memories of his time with Anna.

Similar to the discussions that he had had with his resident friends and equals—and now sometime co-communicators—he tried to work through the purpose of his present situation to try to find some cogent reasoning for it. Why had Anna been taken from him when everything seemed to be going just the way he had wanted it to? Why was the love of his life taken from him just as they were finding a fulfilling relationship together? Sometimes it seemed that things just were not made to go right, like there was a destiny toward which nothing could flow right.

There were questions to be asked and answers needing to be supplied. Specifically, what was the nature of time as it exists here, and why does time exist as it does?

There was a wider view of life here that involves plants and plant life in various forms. They must include multiple varieties of life, some more active or mobile than others. The active mobile varieties played specific roles in their lives or existences until their living time together was complete. Spending time together left plants and animals on their own to pay any physical lack back to gaining its source, more active organisms accomplishing more in their time.

Joe and Mary enjoyed spending time together talking about the nature of actions and movements, and the matter of time as it existed. The nature of action leads to the character of maturity. Mary suggested they go further with the talk on the nature of time and the moments of time. We could also discuss a few other topics. I think permutations of these things could be interesting.

Joe agreed to take the topic further with Mary at a later time.

What is the nature of our relationship with pets? Joe was asking Mary. "Are we equals, or does our relationship include special ties to our ‘special’ friends? Are our pet friends equal or waiting in line for the next available place? No one believes that their pet is average, without special traits.

"Do pets—and for that matter, other animals as well-reincarnate, and if they do, why do they do it? For that matter, if we reincarnate, why do we do so? There could be several answers to those questions. Reincarnation could occur as a new mechanism for refreshing one’s outlook on life, even though that, of course, is purposeless when viewed briefly. There can be a refreshing aptitude, however, in the face of a new look